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l-\i;\l|V(; ION CIIUKCU SlMliE 



Some Old Time 

Meeting Houses of the 

Connecticut Valley 



By 
CHARLES ALBERT WIGHT, B. A. 



Minister of the Congregational Church 
in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts 



fix 

CtWu 



Copyright 1911 

by 

Charles A. Wight 

Chicopee Falls, Mass. 



i^^' 



(? 



THE RICH P^RINT 
Chicopee Falls. Massachusetts 



©CI. A 2 sr, 88 



Foreword 

The white meeting houses of the Connecticut Vzilley 
were familiar objects to the writer of this book in his 
boyhood, and, wherever he has gone since, he has carried 
with him a mental picture of these fine old houses of 
worship. Upon his return to the region three years 
ago for ministerial service, he conceived the idea of 
perpetuating by pen and picture some of the best 
examples of these structures. 

The difficulty of deciding what examples to include 
and what to exclude in the treatment of his subject 
has been almost as great as that experienced by some 
of the first settlements in setting a stake for the 
meeting house lot. The governing principle has been 
the illustration of the churches built between 1780 and 
1850. A few houses of worship built in the earlier 
periods of the history of the region are included, and 
the pen sketches are meant to tell the story of meeting 
house building in the Connecticut Valley from the 
beginning down to the erection of the latest examples 
of Colonial buildings. Many worthy examples have 
been omitted, and a few houses of worship have been 
included whose architectural value is small, but which 
for other reasons the author has been pleased to use 
in the illustration of his subject It will be seen that 
almost every variety of meeting house known to the 
Connecticut Valley prior to 1850 is represented in the 
following pages. 

The homes of the men and women by whom the 
houses of worship illustrated in this book were built 
are rapidly being occupied by people of other races 
and other ideas. If his effort to put into permanent 



form the old time houses of worship in the Connecticut 
Valley shall, even to a small degree, impress future 
occupants of the region with the value of the institu- 
tions and the nobility of character of the race that 
created the old New England, the writer will be amply 
compensated for his labors. 

One of the compensations of his work has been 
the correspondence which the author has had with a 
large number of interesting people, especially the 
ministers of the churches represented in the book, 
who have been most obliging in their efforts to render 
him assistance in gathering materials for his volume. 
To the more than five hundred persons, who generous- 
ly subscribed for his book in advance of publication, 
the author is indebted for the freedom from anxiety as 
to the financial issue of his enterprise which he has 
enjoyed in the prosecution of his labors. 

He is much indebted to Mr. Albert W. Buckley, art 
director of the Springfield Photo-Engraving Company, 
for the fine workmanship displayed in the halftones, 
and to Mr. Lester D. Rich, of Chicopee Falls, Mass., 
for his faithful and successful efforts to put into effect 
the author's ideas in the printing and binding of the 
book. 

He has gained valuable information from a large 
number of historical addresses, town histories, works 
on architecture, town records, and church manuals. 

To all who have in any way aided him in his un- 
dertaking he wishes to express his sense of obligation 
and his thanks. 

C. A. W. 
Easter 1911 



nnO her who in the morning of her 
young womanhood became my wife 
and ever since has been my constant 
and efificient helper in the work of the 
Christian ministry, this volume is 
affectionately and gratefully dedicated. 
Easter 1911. Charles A. Wight. 



REVEREND PHILIP S. MOXOM, D. D., 
SPRINGFIELD, MASS., MR. CHARLES 
STILLMAN, NEW YORK, COLONEL 
H. L. WILLIAMS, NORTHAMPTON, 
MASS., AND MR. I. H. PAGE. CHICOPEE 
FALLS, MASS., FRIENDS OF THE 
AUTHOR, KINDLY PERMIT HIM TO 
MENTION THEM AS PATRONS OF 
HIS BOOK. 



Index 

PAGE 

The Genesis of the Old Time Meeting Houses 1 

Old First Church in Northampton, Mass. . 17 

The Colrain Pulpit 29 

First Church of Christ, Springfield, Mass. . 31 

The Old Square Pew, Ludlow, Mass. . . 41 

First Church of Christ, Hartford, Conn. . . 45 

Second Church of Christ, Hartford, Conn. 51 

The Church in Hadley, Mass 57 

Sketch of the Hatfield Church .... 63 

Meeting Houses in South Hadley, Mass. . 73 

Congregational Church, Granby, Mass. . . 87 

Congregational Church, Williamsburg, Mass. . 89 

Congregational Church, Enfield, Mass. . . 91 

Old White Church, West Springfield, Mass. . 95 

First Church of Christ in Longmeadow, Mass. 101 

Some Churches in Chicopee, Mass. . . . 107 
First Congregational Church, Easthampton, 

Mass 117 

The Old Church in Ashiield, Mass. . . 119 

Congregational Church, Enfield, Conn. . . 121 

Congregational Church, East Haddam, Conn. 123 

First Church of East Hartford, Conn. . . 125 
The Congregational Church in Farmington, 

Conn 129 

The Wetherslield Meeting House . . .133 

Old Lyme, Conn 137 

The Old Town Meeting House, Rockingham, Vt. 141 



Spire of Old South Church, Boston 
First Church Erected in Conn. 
Title Page of Builder's Book 
One of the Copper Plates in Builder's Book 
Interior of Old Deerfield Church 
Town Hall Built next to the Church 
Old South Church, Hallowell, Me. 
Congregational Church, Montague, Mass. 
Copper Weathercock .... 

Congregational Church, Southampton, Mass. 
First Church, Northampton, Mass. . 
Third Meeting House, Northampton, Mass. 

Jonathan Edwards 

Interior of First Church, Northampton, Mass 
Elm Set Out by Jonathan Edwards 
Unitarian Church, Northampton, Mass. . 

The Colrain Pulpit 

First Church of Christ, Springfield, Mass. 
The First Meeting House, Springfield, Mass 
Third Meeting House, Springfield, Mass. 
Rooster and Osgood Chair 

The Ginger Cookies 

Old Square Pew, Ludlow, Mass. 
First Church of Christ, Hartford, Conn. 
Interior of First Church, Hartford, Conn. 
First Church Parish House, Hartford, Conn 



Second Church of Christ, Hartford, Conn. 
Interior of Second Church, Hartford, Conn. 
Church and Town Hall, Hadley, Mass. . 
Church and Old Elm, Hatfield, Mass. . 
Page from Sermon of Rev. Joseph Lyman, D. D 
Sopliia Smith, Founder of Smith College 
The Four Ionic Columns, Hatfield, Mass. 
Rev. John M. Greene, D. D. . 
The Woods Memorial Window, Hatfield, Mass 
First Meeting House of Second Congregational 

Church, Holyoke, Mass. 
The Second Meeting House, South Hadley, Mass 
The White Church, South Hadley, Mass. 
Mary Lyon, Founder of Mt. Holyoke Colleg 

Mary Lyon at 48 

Congregational Church, Granby, Mass. . 
Congregational Church, Williamsburg, Mass 
Before and After, Williamsburg, Mass. . 
Congregational Church, Enfield, Mass. 
The Old White Church, West Springfield, Mass 
First Meeting House, West Springfield, Mass 
The Old White Church on the Village Green 

Longmeadow, Mass. 
First Congregational Church, Chicopee, Mass 
Margaret Belcher's Sketch of Second Congre 

gational Church, Chicopee, Mass. 
Second Congregational Church, Chicopee 

Falls, Mass. . . - . . 

Map of Chicopee Falls .... 
Methodist Church, Chicopee Falls, Mass. 
George S. Taylor ... 



52 

54 
59 
63 
64 
65 
66 
67 
70 

73 
74 
76 
80 
82 
87 
88 
89 
92 
95 
98 

104 
106 

107 

108 
109 
110 
111 



From the Chicopee Journal 

The John Brown Letter .... 

First Congregational Church, Easthampton 

Mass. 

The Old Church, Ashfield, Mass. 
The Beautiful Spire, Ashfield, Mass. 
Congregational Church, Enfield, Conn. 
Interior of Enfield Church 
Congregational Church, East Haddam, Conn. 
Interior of East Haddam Church 
First Church, East Hartford, Conn. 
Congregational Church, Farmington, Conn. 
Interior of Farmington Church 
Congregational Church, Wethersfield, Conn. 
The Beautiful Colonial Meeting House, Old 

Lyme, Conn. 

The Old Town Meeting House, Rockingham, Vt 
Interior of Rockingham Church Showing High 

Pulpit 

Interior of Rockingham Church 



112 
113 

117 
118 
119 
120 
121 
122 
123 
125 
128 
130 
132 

137 
140 

141 
144 



The Genesis of the Old Time 
Meeting House 

Spires whose fingers point to Heaven. — Wordsworth. 

DURING the last century the stately white 
meeting house with its tapering spire was a 
familiar object in many of the Connecticut 
valley towns. Standing, as it often did, in the midst 
of noble elms, it presented a most graceful appearance. 
Many of these houses of worship have been preserved 
and are loved and admired by those who worship in 
them, or reside in their neighborhood. Some of them 
have been destroyed by fire, while a few have been 
taken down to make way for modern structures or the 
needs of the business world. 

One who is familiar with the old buildings of the 
Kennebec valley in Maine, Portsmouth in New Hamp- 
shire, Salem, Boston and Plymouth in eastern Massa- 
chusetts, and the towns and cities of the Connecticut 
valley, knows that a hundred years ago a common type 
of domestic and public buildings prevailed in all of 
these places. The fact is readily explained. The 
dwellers in all of these places were descendants of the 
first settlers of New England, the Pilgrims and Puri- 
tans. The earliest inhabitants of the Connecticut valley 
constituted the first wave of that tide of emigration, 
which swept ever westward from the Atlantic sea- 
board, until it had spread over the Mohawk valley and 
the Mississippi basin, crossed the Rockies and the 
Sierras, and reached the Pacific ocean. 

The same conditions prevailed from the beginning 
in all of the early settlements of New England. To 
write a history of architecture in New England during 



the first hundred and fifty years after the landing of the 
Pilgrims on the shores of the New World, would be 
to give a narrative of primeval forests, dangers from 
Indians, fierce struggle with winter cold, scarcity of 
almost everything that makes human life comfortable, 
and lack of skilled architects and builders. 

Almost all of the early settlements of the Connec- 
ticut valley were laid out on the same plan. There 
was a single long street, sometimes as much as three 
hundred feet wide, in the midst of which was a common, 
extending the whole length of the street. The church 
usually stood in the center of the common and the 
houses were built on either side of the street, the barns 
and out buildings being ranged back of the houses. 
The river was usually about half a mile back from the 
street on one side, while at about the same distance 
back from the other side was the swamp or range of 
hills. In many instances these towns remain to this 
day unchanged in plan. In later times the church was 
moved from the common and placed on one side of 
the street in line with the houses. Enfield, Connecticut, 
and Longmeadow, Hadley, and Hatfield in Massachu- 
setts, are well known examples of the way in which 
almost all of the early settlements of the Connecticut 
valley were laid out. 

In the construction of their houses and public 
buildings the first settlers used such materials as were 
at hand and built with special reference to warmth, 
space and protection from wild beasts and Indians. 
Even the meeting house was erected with a view to 
warding off assaults from the savages. The turret at 
the top of the house of worship served as a watch 
tower. The following is taken from a letter written 
in 1699 by Samuel Smith, of Hadley, Massachusetts: 
"Ye firste Meetinge House was solid mayde to with- 
stand ye wicked onsaults of ye Red Skins. Its Foun- 




SI'lHE OF THK (»IJ) sol TH ( IILUCH. HOSTON. W IIICH HAD AX 
IMI'oK'rAXT IXFU'EXCK I'POX LATKK DKSKiXS FOR iHURCH 

si'ii;ks IX XKW i-:n(iLaxi) cmiicH Brii.i- i7i';i 




THE FIRST CHIKCH l-.KECIi;iJ IN LONNECTICUT 



dations was laide in ye feare of ye Lord, but its Walls 
was truly laide in ye feare of ye Indians, for many and 
grate was ye Terrors of em. I do mind me y't alle ye 
able-bodyed Men did work thereat, and ye olde and 
feeble did watch in towns to espie if any Savages was 
in hidinge neare, and every Man kept his Musket right 
to his hande". 

The first houses and churches were built of logs 
taken from the forest. The buildings which succeeded 
these first structures were strictly utilitarian in design, 
little or no attempt having been made at ornamenta- 
tion. The time came, however, when the prosperity 
of the people enabled them to erect more pretentious 
houses, and public buildings were constructed with 
some regard to architectural principles and effect. A 
large number of old houses may still be seen in New 
England, which were built in this period. They are 
square structures, extremely plain on the outside, ex- 
cept for the front doorways, which are characterized 
by their classical style of architecture. A large number 
of such houses were built in the last half of the 
eighteenth century. 

Some of these houses were highly ornamented 
within. In recent years there has been a marked 
tendency toward external ornamentation in the con- 
struction of buildings of every kind. It was consistent 
with the character of the earlier generations in New 
England to avoid external ornamentation in the 
building of their houses and make the interior as beauti- 
ful as the materials and means at their disposal per- 
mitted. The highly ornamented doorway was a hint 
of the beauty and refinement to be looked for within. 
It is interesting to note that our Puritan ancestors in 
the construction of their houses copied the ornamen- 
tations of heathen temples in the making of their door- 
ways. The beautiful doorways of many of the old 



houses still standing in New England are a copy of 
architectural embellishments used by the ancients in 
the construction of their idol temples. 

In the main, our ancestors were Roman in their 
architectural tastes. The architect Minard Lafevre, 
has written, "Architecture owes its origin to necessity", 
and it is certain that the utilitarian motive controlled 
in the first building enterprises of our forefathers. 

The builders of the early domestic structures 
made much use of certain books, which may be de- 
scribed as builders' assistants. The names of some of 
these were, "Builders' Companions", "Gentlemen's and 
Builders' Repositories", "Builders' Jewels". A book of 
this kind was published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, 
1797, by Asher Benjamin, a carpenter. It contained 
illustrations and descriptions for the use of builders 
and was an attempt, as one writer has observed, to 
translate the Classic into the vernacular. The de- 
signs of Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren were 
adapted to the needs of the region. Benjamin's book 
had a large influence in shaping the domestic architect- 
ure of western New England in the first half of the 
nineteenth century. The book also contained designs 
for churches. 

A copy of one of the best of these books, "The 
City and Country Builders' and Workman's Treasury 
of Designs", is owned by Miss Mary H. Carter, of 
Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. It was published in 
London in 1756 and is a large volume of many pages. 
It contains plates and descriptions of the ornamental 
parts of buildings, monuments, tables, book cases, time 
pieces, pulpits, altar pieces, iron gates, and so forth. 
The copper plates are very fine. This book was owned 
and used by Miss Carter's grandfather, Elias Carter, 
who died in 1864, and also by her great grandfather, 
Timothy Carter, who died in 1845. They were both 



The C I T y and Country 

BUILDER'S and JVORKMAN's 
TREASURY of DESIGNS: 

Or the ART of 

DRAWING and WORKING 

The Ornamental PARTS of 

ARCHITECTURE. 

lUuftrated by upwards of Four Hundred Grand Defigns, neatly engraved on 
One Hundred and Eighty-fix COPPER-PLATES, for 



Piers, 




Pavements, 


Obelifques, 


Gates, 




Frets, 


Pedcfiah, for 


Doors, 




Gulochi's, 


Sun-Diah, 


IVindo'ws 




PulpitSi 


Bujlo's, and 


Niches, 




Types, 


Stone Tables, 


Buffets, 




Al tar-Pieces, 


Bcok-Cafes, 


Ciller us, . 




Monuments, 


Cie/i/igs, and 


Cbimney- 


Pieces, 


Fonts, 


Iron ('Forks. 


^abernac 


le-Fr limes. 







Proportioned by A L I Q_U O T PARTS, 

WitHi an APPENDIX of rcwteai PLATES of rmffes for GnJns and Beam!, diflerent 
Sorts of Raftin, and a Variety of R.co[i, ifx. 

To which are prefixed. 

The Five Orders of Columns, according to Andrka PALLAoro; v,'hofe iMcmbcrs arc 
proportioned by aliquot Parts, in a more cufy Manner than has yet been done. 

The WHOLE interfperfcd 

With fure RULES for worl<ing all the Varieties of Raking Members in Pcinunts, ModiUiow, &c. 
The like, for the irnmcJiate Ufc oC WORKMEN, never nublifheJ brfoi-, in any Langmt^c. 

By B. L. 

LONDON, Printed for S. Harping: 

•And Sold by D. Don, in Ave-MaryLane; and J. Marks, oii ilic Pavement in St. Muruni-Lvx: 175'- 



TITLE PAGE OF A P.UIl.DER'S BOOK OWNED .VXD USED KY TIMOTHY 

CAKTEK. mil.DEH, IN THE FIRST DECADES OF THE LAST CENTrRV. 

AND ALSO BY HIS SON. EEI.^S CARTER. WHO DIED IX isa4. 



builders, Elias Carter, having built several fine churches 
in and near Worcester, Massachusetts. The accompa- 
nying illustrations give a good idea of the book. 

When the first settlers had erected their houses, 
they next gave attention to the construction of the 
meeting house. Not long after came the school house, 
and still later the town hall. Doubtless the promptness 
with which the people of some of the secondary 
towns proceeded to build a meeting house and engage 
a minister was due in part to the fact that grants 
of privileges to establish a plantation were made 
upon the express condition that the inhabitants settle 
and support "a learned Orthodox minister of good con- 
versation". Like the first houses of the settlers, the 
meeting houses were small rude structures made of 
logs squared at the ends. In rare instances they were 
built of timber, laboriously sawn by hand. One of the 
earliest of these meeting houses is described as being 
twenty six feet long, eighteen feet wide, nine feet in 
the clear, and having two windows, a door and a 
chimney. In this particular house there was no pulpit 
and only rude benches for seats. 

As the settlements grew in size and wealth the 
first structures erected for religious worship were set 
aside for other purposes, or taken down, and more 
commodious buildings constructed in their place. 

In most towns the second meeting house was a 
severely plain structure made of sawn timber. It was 
square, with a roof of pyramidal form. On the apex 
was a small cupola in which the bell was hung, the 
rope hanging down in the broad aisle. It was the ex- 
ception that a bell actually hung in the turret. The 
inhabitants in many places were called together for 
worship by sounding a trumpet, beating a drum, or 
blowing a conch shell. These houses of worship 
were "decently seated". There might be four windows 



in each side; opposite the door was the pulpit. The 
men sat in the broad aisle at the right of the minister 
as he faced the congregation, and the women at the left. 

The third class of meeting houses erected in New 
England assumed much larger proportions than those 
which preceded them and considerable attention was 
given to ornamentation. Some of these later structures 
had two rows of windows in each side and a tall orna- 
mented steeple surmounted by a weather vane. The 
third meeting house erected in Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts, was a good example of this style of buildings. 

Most of the fine examples of Colonial meeting 
houses in the Connecticut valley and other parts of 
New England were erected in the closing years of the 
eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth. 
The work done by the builders in this period com- 
mands our admiration and affection. The columns, 
pilasters, and entablatures used in ornamenting the 
buildings are exceedingly beautiful and show excellent 
taste. The committee appointed by the First Parish, 
Hatfield, Massachusetts, in 1849, to erect the new 
meeting house were instructed to have a portico built 
in front supported by four Ionic columns. In many 
instances the facade was a remarkable creation. 

In the nineteenth century the increase of wealth 
led, as was inevitable, to a reaction from the ascetic 
ideas and practices of the early settlers of the country. 

Love of the beautiful, a quality with which the 
Creator has endowed men, began to find expression in 
the homes and public edifices of the people. The plain 
and almost barn like houses of worship, which had 
served the purpose of the people in the latter part of 
the century before, now gave place to much more pre- 
tentious buildings. In many instances the old structure 
was too small for the increased congregation. 

The builders of the new meeting houses were 
men of taste and skill in their profession. When the 



project of a new house of worship arose it might 
happen that some one of the parties interested had 
seen, while on a journey to Boston, or elsewhere, a 
stately meeting house, which he had admired and now 
recollected. This became the pattern with more or 
less modification, according to the necessities of the 
case, of the new house of worship. When the third 
meeting house in Northampton was planned a com- 
mittee was appointed to go and view several notable 
houses of worship. 

It has been stated that the stately and highly or- 
namented steeples of many of the old time meeting 
houses of New England have no family relation to the 
house of worship itself. The impression also prevails 
to some extent that Puritan ideas and influences con- 
trolled in making many of the houses extremely plain 
both outside and within. It seems more probable 
that the governing influence in the case was the limit- 
ed means at the disposal of the builders. Their fi- 
nancial resources were, in most instances, not enough 
to enable them to ornament the entire structure. 
Hence the main body of the church was made ex- 
tremely plain, and an effort was put forth to make the 
front and the steeple as beautiful as possible under 
the circumstances. In rare instances the entire build- 
ing, especially the interior, was highly ornamented. A 
good example of this class of buildings is the Unitarian 
Church in Deerfield, Massachusetts, the interior of 
which is most elaborate in decoration and furnishing. 

About the time of the building of the meeting 
house in Northampton, which stood on "Meeting 
House Hill" from 1812 to 1876, Isaac Damon came to 
Northampton from New York, where he had studied 
under the well known architect Ithiel Towne. Although 
only in his twenty-eighth year he was engaged to design 



the new meeting house. This was his first independent 
worl<. His special work was bridge building and he 
designed a large number of bridges, nearly all of the 
bridges across the Connecticut, a half dozen over the 
Penobscot and some over the Mohawk, the Hudson 
and the Ohio, having been designed and built by him. 

The church which Damon built in Northampton 
was the largest and most elaborate of any in western 
Massachusetts. It seated nearly two thousand people. 
He also built the stately house of worship of the First 
Parish of Springfield, which still stands on Court 
Square. At least a dozen of the houses of worship in 
western Massachusetts were designed by him. He ex- 
erted as great an influence upon the ecclesiastical archi- 
tecture of the region as did Benjamin upon the domestic. 

The first meeting houses were built not only with 
reference to purposes of religious worship, but also 
for general public use. The second story of the 
meeting house in Springfield was used for a time for 
storing grain. The first town meetings were held in 
the meeting house. The representatives of fifty towns, 
who met in Hatfield in the August Convention that 
preceded the Shays' Rebellion and drew up their list 
of "grievances", assembled in the Hatfield meeting 
house. There is record of murder trials having been 
held in the meeting house. 

In some instances when the second house of 
worship was erected the first was used as a school 
house. It became the custom later to erect a town 
house along side of the meeting house. The style of 
architecture was much the same in the case of both 
buildings, except for the steeple which adorned the 
house of worship. 

In the case of most of the meeting houses erected 
in the first decades of the last century the main portion 
of the building, like the older houses of worship, was 

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TOWN HAIJ. BUII/r NEXT TO THK CHURCH. HATFIK1,1>, MASS. 



extremely plain and of a primitive type. As a rule, it 
was a rectangular oblong structure, built for the most 
part of wood, one or two stories high, and fitted with 
plain oblong windows. It had a square tower in front 
for entrance, surmounted by a small cupola for a bell, 
terminating usually in a slender spire with vane. In 
some instances, however, the facade was a marvelous 
creation. The steeple likewise was most beautiful. 
In the construction of the steeple the builders some- 
times placed upon one form with its Classic adornments 
a second or third equally ornate form, with the Gothic 
or rounded roof. 

The fine steeples of the old houses of worship in 
the Connecticut valley are imitations of English spires 
of the seventeenth century built by Sir Christopher 
Wren, which in turn were an English modification of 
Italian spires of an earlier time. A peculiarity of the 
spires of the period is the investment of the Gothic 
form with a clothing of Italian architecture. 

From what has been written it may be seen that 
in the period beginning with the first settlements and 
closing with the middle of the last century four classes 
of meeting houses were built in the Connecticut valley 
towns. The first houses of worship were small rude 
structures that may be regarded as only a temporary 
provision for the religious needs of the settlers. The 
structures which followed the first houses were larger 
and made of better material. They were constructed 
with more regard to ecclesiastical proprieties and some 
of these structures were used for fifty or even seventy 
five years, before giving place to their successors. 

The third class of meeting houses built by our 
forefathers were, in many instances, stately structures. 
The houses of worship in Farmington, Connecticut, 
Springfield and Northampton in Massachusetts were 
good examples of this class. 



Most of the meeting houses of the fourth class 
were erected in the first half of the last century, many 
of them in the first and second decades of the century. 
The fine old churches, with their classical fronts and 
many storied spires, illustrated in the following sketches 
belong to this period. It will be seen that these 
churches bear a family resemblance to one another. 
Such houses of worship had already been built along 
the Atlantic seaboard. 

The members of the historic Old South, Hallowell, 
Maine, of which the writer was pastor for several years, 
cherish traditions of a fine old house of worship erected 
in 1798. This church had a tall semi-circular pulpit 
reached by stairs on either side, extensive galleries sup- 
ported by beautiful columns, pews with high backs and 
doors, a handsome belfry tower designed by the famous 
architect, Charles Bulfinch, of Boston, and a bell 
purchased from Paul Revere in 1802. The loss of this 
venerable landmark by fire on a winter night, 1878, 
filled the entire community with sorrow. The ac- 
companying illustration is from a water-color sketch 
made by Miss Olive G. Hartwell of Boston. 

It is probable that the builders of such houses of 
worship as the First Church of Christ in Springfield, 
erected in 1819, had in mind certain meeting houses 
in the eastern part of the state. Certainly the spire of 
the Old South Church of Boston had an important 
influence upon the designs used by the builders of 
some of the beautiful spires of the Connecticut valley 
towns in the first decades of the last century. It is 
probable that the spire of the church in Hadley, Massa- 
chusetts, was patterned after that of the Old North 
Church, Boston. 

It is interesting to note that at first the people of 
New England did not attach the sanctity to the house 
of worship that is characteristic of the present gener- 
ic 




)LT) SOUTH CUrUdl, llAlJ.nWKlL, MAl.NK. EHECTKI) IT.S 




('( )NGRK<iATl( ).\ AL CilURCli, MONTACil' K. .MASS. ERKCTED 1834 



ation of church goers. The edifice was styled a meeting 
house because it was used for general purposes. In 
the first years of the settlements of New England the 
meeting house was some times fortified and used as a 
place of refuge. Many of the families of the first settlers 
were in this way saved from massacre by the Indians. 

Often the meeting house in New England was 
built on a hill top and the guard in the turret, sweeping 
the entire region round about with his eye, could 
readily espy the approach of an enemy. In such a 
spot the meeting house was comparatively safe from 
destruction by fire and easily defended from attack by 
the enemy. Its sides were conspicuous places for the 
posting of notices, and hides of wild beasts were 
sometimes nailed to the meeting house to dry. We 
must not think that our forefathers were prone to 
idolatry because they sought out the high places of the 
land as sites for their religious altars. 

Rev. John W. Harding, late pastor of the First 
Church of Christ in Longmeadow, in an address at the 
centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town 
of Longmeadow, gave a description of a Sabbath day, 
a century and a quarter ago, that may be fittingly in- 
corporated into the present sketch. The address was 
given in 1883. The portion alluded to is as follows: 
"It is a Sabbath day, one hundred years ago. The 
second bell — first peal. From north and south and 
east the tribes come up— the whole population, afoot, 
in wagons— the farm wagons without springs. Some 
are drawn by horses, the rest by oxen. The women 
and the younger children and the old men sit on 
straight backed chairs or milking stools; the young 
men and maidens, and the boys, line the wayside. The 
bell begins to toll. The congregation throng the 
meeting house steps, the porches, and the aisles. It 
is the day of greetings, the social exchange, the news- 

11 



day, Dr. Williams at length emerges from the parson- 
age in gown and bands and powdered wig, three- 
cornered hat, knee breeches, silk or woolen stockings 
and silver shoe buckles. The bell will not stop tolling 
till he passes through the massive double door with 
iron-handled latch and into the high pulpit, with its 
carved work of grapes and pomegranates under the 
great sounding board. The deacons are seated in their 
railed pew beneath the pulpit. 

There is no stove. For fifty-one years the frosty 
air of the new meeting house was only mitigated by 
the women's foot stoves and the cracking together of 
frozen boot heels. The parson sometimes preached in 
heavy homespun cloak and woolen mittens, and at the 
nooning, grateful indeed was the roaring fire in the 
great kitchen of the parsonage, at the tavern bar room, 
at all the hospitable neighbors' open houses. Comfort- 
ing were the homemade lunches, the apples roasting 
on the hearth, the cider, the hot cider, that is to say — 
the flip. The congregation stand up to pray — bodily 
infirmity alone prevents. If one sits down in prayer 
time, it is a sudden and emphatic protest against the 
parson's praying for the king and royal family. That 
habit clings to Dr. Williams a little beyond the patriotic 
sufferance. Not that he is a 'tory', or 'inimical to 
the liberties of America' by any settled convictions; 
only an old man, to whom the times look dark, and 
'fears are in the way'. In due time he reads from 
the pulpit, though not without some misgivings, the 
Declaration of Independence, and gives his benediction 
to the soldiers as they march from the church door to 
the camp of General Washington. For fifty years the 
congregation sit down to sing; but after the deacon has 
ceased to line out the psalm, and the pitch pipe no 
longer toots, and the singing master has organized the 
choir, and the bass viols and flutes conspire with young 

12 



men and maidens to make a joyful noise, they rise up, 
and face about to see the choir. Alas! the strife that 
raged awhile between the Psalter and Watt's Hymns; 
between free singing and that by rote — the unheavenly 
dissonance— 'left', as Thomas Walter, the Roxbury 
pastor says, 'to the mercy of every unskilful throat to 
chop and alter, twist and change, according to their 
diverse fancies; and so little attention paid to time, that 
they were often one or two words apart, producing 
noises so hideous and disorderly as is bad beyond ex- 
pression'. 

The gallery of the new meeting house runs around 
the east, south and west walls, square pews line the 
gallery walls, the negro pew is in the south west comer, 
the boys of twelve occupy the next pew, the boys of 
fourteen the next, those of eighteen the next, it having 
the extra advantage of a window, and the boys of sixteen 
the last pew on that side. A similar arrangement for 
the girls in the eastern gallery; the single men and 
women of discreet age occupy the pews lining the 
south gallery wall. The choir seats run all around the 
gallery front, and the smaller children sit on benches 
directly behind the choir. In such an arrangement the 
necessity for tithing men is great. The seats of honor 
are in the broad aisle pews below nearest the pulpit; 
the pews are all free, but the seating committee assign 
them. They are first instructed 'to wait on Dr. 
Williams and know his pleasure, what pew in the 
meeting house he chooses for his family to sit in'. 
But after that, no easy task this 'dignifying the house'. 
Age is one consideration, property another, standing 
another". 

So far as the records show, the congregation in 
Hadley, Massachusetts, was the first to make use of 
an iron stove, a stove having been placed in the 
Hadley meeting house in 1730. This action was de- 

13 



nounced by many and stoves did not come into common 
use in meeting houses of the Connecticut valley until 
a much later period. So cold were these houses in 
winter that the bread used in the celebration of the 
Lord's Supper was sometimes frozen. Judge Sewall in 
his Diary says, "Bread was frozen at Lord's Table". 
The tithing man was an important personage in the 
old meeting houses. He was given a convenient place 
in the congregation and the duty was assigned to him 
of keeping order and securing attention during the 
services. In his hand was a long stick, having at one 
end a rabbit's foot and at the other a rabbit's tail, or 
perhaps the feathery tail of a fox. The heavier end of 
the stick was laid upon the head of the nodding boy, 
while the face of the slumbering matron was gently 
brushed with the softer end of the wand. 

In the "dignifying" or "seating" of the meeting 
house our forefathers departed very widely from the 
democratic teachings of the Bible. They were un- 
doubtedly familiar with the Scripture, "The rich and 
the poor meet together : the Lord is the maker of them 
all". But in the matter of assignment of seats in the 
house of worship there was much respect shown to 
families of wealth and influence, and to persons of 
eminence and advanced years. In Springfield, Deacon 
Samuel Chapin and Thomas Cooper, the contractor 
employed in building the first meeting house, were 
given places of honor in the congregation. In West 
Springfield as late as the forepart of the last century 
there was an unwritten law that no young woman 
should occupy a front seat in the gallery, where the 
unmarried women sat, unless attired in a silk gown. 
It probably should be stated as a witticism, rather 
than an actual fact, that in a certain town in southern 
New England the people so arranged the burial of their 
dead that on the morning of the resurrection, when 

14 




COPFKH WKATHKI!('()(;K 







C()N(iKE(iATI()NAL (JHURCH SOUTHAMPTON. MASS. KRECTEl) 17S8 



the dead should rise and face eastward, the colored 
brethren would stand in the rear of the assembly. 

A notable feature of not a few of the old meeting 
houses of New England is the copper weather-cock, 
perched upon the top of the spire, the purpose of 
which is to remind the church of Peter's warning and 
constitute a call to repentance. The most famous of 
these church roosters are three that were made by a 
noted London coppersmith and brought to this country 
in 1750. One of these was placed on the spire of the 
Old South Church of Boston, one on the church in 
Newbury port, and the third on the church in Springfield. 

His investigation of the building of the old time 
meeting houses has reminded the writer of the firm 
adherence to conviction which characterized the fathers 
and has illustrated how adherence to conviction may 
sometimes lead to real obstinacy in small matters, a 
noble quality thus being transformed into narrowness 
of spirit. It sometimes happened that when action 
favorable to the building of a house of worship had 
been taken, a bitter contention over the location of 
the proposed building postponed the erection of 
the meeting house for several years. In several 
instances, it is recorded that no settlement of the 
dilKiculty could be effected until a committee had been 
called in from outside. In Southampton the building 
of the house of worship was delayed for seven years 
because of the inability of the people to agree upon a 
site. There was still longer delay in other cases. In 
some notable instances the General Court was appealed 
to for help. 

Many of the old churches of the Connecticut valley 
are still in a good state of preservation. Almost every 
place of importance has one or more examples of this 
type of meeting house. These old houses of worship 
are familiar landmarks. They are regarded with love 

15 



and admiration by the descendants of the men who 
built them and their preservation is a matter of earnest 
solicitude. This book is a sincere attempt to present 
in picture and story some of the best examples of the 
old meeting houses of the Connecticut valley. The 
writer is one of thousands of his generation who have 
been influenced in ideals and character by the stately 
houses of worship here illustrated. May these noble 
structures long remain a memorial of the Christian 
faith and sturdy character of their builders. 



16 



1 




FIRST CHURCH, NORTHAMPTON, MASS.. 1812 



The Old First Church Northampton, 
Massachusetts 

BARBER in his quaint book, "Historical Col- 
lections", published nearly three quarters of a 
century ago, wrote of Northampton, "The 
original planters were twenty one in number, and the 
legal grant was made to them in 1654 by 'John 
Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke, and Samuel Chapin, com- 
missioners for laying out Nonotuck, by the general 
court', and the settlement of the town commenced 
the same year". 

The first settlers came to what Baedeker de- 
scribes as "the frontispiece of the book of beauty 
which Nature opens wide in the Connecticut Valley", 
at the time when Louis the Fourteenth was King of 
France and Oliver Cromwell Lord High Protector of 
Great Britain. 

A perusal of the pages of the Hampshire County 
Gazetteer, 1654 to 1887, readily convinces one that few 
towns in the country exerted so large an influence 
upon colonial and national affairs as did Northampton 
in the early years of the country's history. Here 
resided Joseph Hawley, patriot and statesman; Seth 
Pomeroy, who was greeted with cheers by the troops 
at Bunker's Hill, when, after a hurried horseback ride 
from Northampton, he received a musket and ad- 
vanced to the "rail fence", where the fight was hottest; 
Caleb Strong, for eleven years Governor of the Common- 
wealth, one of the committee of four who drew up the 
original constitution of Massachusetts, United States 
Senator, and member of the Philadelphia committee 
that framed the constitution of the United States; 



17 



Rev. Solomon Stoddard, pastor of the First Church 
from 1672 to 1729, fifty seven years, urbane, scholarly, 
eloquent, and influential among all the ministers and 
churches of New England; Jonathan Edwards, theo- 
logian, metaphysician, scholar and idealist, well de- 
scribed in the homely lines : 

"Edwards, a wonder of logic rare; 
His preaching, earnest, faithful, sound, 
His books profound beyond compare. 
Have spread his fame the world around". 

It was inevitable that a community abounding in 
such men should develop a vigorous, militant religious 
life and build meeting houses eminently worthy of 
presentation in picture and story. The First Church 
in Northampton was organized June 18, 1661. The 
church's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary will 
be celebrated the coming summer. 

The center of political and religious life in North- 
ampton in former generations was "Meeting House 
Hill". On this spot stood the historic houses of 
worship described in this sketch, and here the people 
used to meet for discussion of town affairs and 
the worship of God. The locality also became a 
judicial center and here many a famous legal trial 
took place. It was here that Webster and Choate 
contended in masterly fashion over the provisions of 
the Oliver Smith will. Here in the old brick Court 
house, that was familiar to many of us during the latter 
part of the last century, the writer of this sketch 
witnessed the trial of the robbers of the Northampton 
National Bank. It was in this Court house that the 
late Daniel W. Bond displayed in the seventies and 
eighties those rare gifts as lawyer and jurist that 
resulted in his appointment to the Superior Court of 
Massachusetts, a position which he filled with dis- 

18 



tinction for more than a score of years, or until his 
recent death. Four meeting houses besides the 
present noble structure, have stood upon this spot. 
Such famous preachers as Jonathan Edwards and 
George Whitefield have made the place historic by their 
solemn and moving discourses. As you stand in the 
neighborhood you can, in imagination, see passing be- 
fore you the forms of certain distinguished citizens of 
the early days. When we consider the character of the 
first settlers of the place and their previous history, we 
are not surprised to learn that among the first things 
which they thought of upon their arrival was the 
erection of a house for the public worship of God. It 
was styled by them "a house for the town", which 
reminds us that the first meeting houses of the region 
were used for secular as well as religious purposes. 
The first meeting house, according to the plan and 
specifications, was to be built of "sawen" timber, 
twenty six feet long, eighteen feet wide, and nine feet 
in the clear. That it was regarded as a building of 
special importance is indicated by the fact that it was 
to be built of sawn timber, which was prepared by 
hand, involving a large amount of hard labor. The 
houses of the settlers at the time were made of rough 
logs. 

In the course of seven years the meeting house 
became too small for the increased congregations and, 
July 12, 1661, the town voted to erect a new meeting 
house. This second house stood, as did the first, on 
"Meeting House Hill" and was forty feet square. The 
old house was used for school purposes until 1663. 
The roof of the new church rose in pyramidal form to 
a point in the center and was surmounted by a "turret". 
No bell was used for many years, but the people were 
called to worship by the beating of a drum, or the 
blowing of a trumpet. Whether or not the trumpet 

19 



was sounded at times from the turret does not appear. 

This second meeting house, in size and ap- 
pearance, resembled the meeting houses used at the 
time in Hatfield, West Springfield, Wethersfield and 
some other valley towns. In June 1664 it was voted 
that the house be "decently seated". No services of 
dedication appear to have been held at the completion 
of the building and it is quite probable that a town 
meeting may have been held in it before it was used 
for a religious service. 

In the seating of the people the principle follow- 
ed was the opposite of that involved in a Christian 
democracy. Families were assigned seats in the 
house of worship according to the rank and dignity 
accorded to them in the community. 

This second meeting house had a door facing 
south and four windows in each side. The pulpit 
probably stood opposite the door. The house was not 
fully provided with pews for fifty years after its 
erection and galleries were not added for many years. 
After the Indian raid on Hatfield in 1667 the house 
was fortified by a line of palisades, which enclosed it 
on the four sides. In 1682 a move was made to 
purchase a bell. The bell was duly obtained and 
continued to do service for about three quarters of a 
century. 

It was in this house that Edwards was preaching 
at the time the first great revival occurred under his 
labors, when some three hundred members were 
added to the church. Sunday, March 13, 1737, occurred 
in this building the accident to which reference is so 
frequently made in histories of the time. According to 
the tradition, Edwards had taken for his text,"Behold ye 
despisers, wonder and perish", and was well through 
his introductory remarks, when the gallery fell with a 
fearful crash, creating consternation in the congregation 

20 




THIKD MKRTlMi HOLSK— ERECTED IT.n 



and giving terrifying emphasis to the preacher's 
solemn words. The framework of the gallery and its 
occupants fell upon the people seated beneath, but 
fortunately no one was seriously injured. One natu- 
rally infers that this accident hastened the erection of 
a new house of worship. 

The old meeting house, after having stood for 
over seventy years, had become weak and was too 
small for the congregation. In 1735 the town voted 
by a large majority to erect a new house of worship. 
This structure was seventy feet long, forty six feet 
wide, and had a steeple at the end. 

A committee was appointed to view several well 
known meeting houses and prepare a design for the 
new edifice. The new structure resembled meeting 
houses standing at the time in Boston, Springfield, 
Hartford, and Longmeadow. It stood in the present 
highway about in line with the center doorway of the 
present house of worship. The steeple was at the 
east end. The frame of the house was erected in the 
fall of 1736, but the steeple was not built until a little 
later. Seventy six men were employed in the work a 
part or the whole of five days. It is recorded that 
forty nine gallons of rum were required to get the 
timbers in place and that in the construction of the 
building, including the raising of the frame, sixty nine 
gallons of rum, several barrels of "cyder" and a number 
of barrels of beer were consumed. The spire was raised 
July 21, 1737. The old meeting house was pulled 
down May 5, 1738. A porch was placed on the west 
entrance of the new house in 1764 and one over the 
south entrance in 1768. There is allusion to a clock 
being in the steeple as early as 1740. The house was 
used for the first time in 1738, but was not wholly 
completed until the next year. It was in this church 
that Edwards was preaching when theGreatAwakening 

21 



began. George Whitefield visited Northampton in 
1740 and preached in this house. This building was 
the scene of the closing labors of Edwards in North- 
ampton and his dismissal in 1750. July 1, 1750, he 
preached his farewell discourse. Did the Lord manifest 
his disapproval of the dismissal of Edwards from North- 
ampton when in the summer of the following year 
the meeting house was struck by lightning ? The bolt 
struck the weathercock and ran down the spire and 
tower to the ground. A new weather-cock was purchas- 
ed to take the place of the one destroyed by lightning. 
This house closely resembled the house of worship in 
Farmington, Connecticut. There was a side to the 
character of Jonathan Edwards that has been too little 
recognized by the world at large. One of his biogra- 
phers has well described him as America's greatest 
saint. The man who on his death bed could send to 
his wife the well known message, "Give my kindest 
love to my dear wife and tell her that the uncommon 
union which has long subsisted between us has been of 
such a nature as I trust is spiritual, and therefore will 
continue forever", was surely a good husband, as well 
as a profound thinker. 

This third house of worship, like its predecessor, 
stood for about three quarters of a century. The ac- 
companying illustration is said to be a good represent- 
ation of the structure and was made from a sketch 
drawn by William F. Pratt, architect, about forty years 
ago. 

When the time came to erect the fourth meeting 
house, the noble edifice so familiar to the older people 
of to-day, the increased wealth and general resources 
of the period made it possible to build a house of 
worship of beautiful design and stately proportions. 
There was brought from New York the architect 
Captain Isaac Damon, then in his twenty eighth year. 

22 




JOXATIIAX i:i»\\'AHJ)S 



He had studied architecture under Ithiel Towne of 
New York. He was engaged to make the plans and 
direct the building of the new house. The church in 
Northampton was the first independent work in church 
building done by Captain Damon. He afterwards 
built a dozen more churches in the region. It is inter- 
esting to note that he made a specialty of bridge 
building and built nearly all of the bridges that were 
constructed in the early part of the nineteenth century 
over the Connecticut river and several of those that 
spanned the Penobscot, the Mohawk, the Hudson, and 
the Ohio rivers. 

The church in Northampton built by Captain 
Damon was completed in 1812. It was at the time 
the most elaborate house of worship in western 
Massachusetts. It had a seating capacity of nearly 
two thousand people and was in excellent condition 
when it was unfortunately destroyed by fire in the 
afternoon of June 27, 1876. The accompanying illus- 
tration is from a sketch made by the architect, Mr. G. 
C. Gardner of Springfield. 

Rev. Solomon Williams, whose ministry extended 
over a period of fifty six years, was pastor at the time 
the fourth meeting house was erected. The church 
has received into its membership in the course of its 
history about five thousand persons. 

In response to a letter of inquiry directed to Mr. 
Christopher Clarke, of Northampton, now in his 
eighty fifth year, the writer of this sketch received 
the following interesting letter : 

Northampton, Mass., January 6, 1911. 
My Dear Mr. Wight : 

I have your letter of the 5th and would say in 
regard to the First Church building destroyed by fire 
in 1876, that it had a most beautiful interior con- 
struction. The fine pulpit was of the high old fashion- 

23 



ed sort with steps ascending to it on botii sides 
curving from the platform where the communion table 
stood. The galleries were extended on both sides of 
the church from the organ gallery, with three rows of 
pews and seats, and gave ample room with the large 
body pews for the seating of about seventeen hundred 
persons. It was the largest church at the time in the 
state. The columns that supported the galleries were 
beautifully carved, and the ceiling was very ornate in 
construction, rising almost like a dome from sides to 
the center, from which a large and beautiful chandelier 
was hung. 

This church up to 1826 was the only one in the 
town, and the first church to be built after that year 
was the Second Congregational (Unitarian), which was 
also destroyed by fire a few years ago. 

You speak of Jenny Lind coming to sing in 
Northampton. I was the man who brought her here, 
guaranteeing with two other persons $3,000, in 
order to secure the engagement. She sang in the 
First Church the evening of July 3, 1851, the sale 
of tickets amounting to $4,500. In the spring of 1852 
she gave a second concert at the Town Hall in 
Northampton for the benefit of the Young Men's 
Institute and local charity. Soon after her first 
concert in Northampton she married Otto Goldschmidt, 
her piano accompanist, and they resided on Round 
Hill, Northampton, until the spring of 1852, when 
they returned to Germany. 

In regard to the Court House, it was built of 
brick and had a small bell tower, and a bell that was 
rung for many years to call the court together. 
Very truly, 

Christopher Clarke. 

Rev. Henry T. Rose, D. D., the present pastor of 
the First Church, in reply to a letter of inquiry from 

24 




INTEKIOK OF OLD FIRST CHURCH SOMETIME BEFORE 
IT WAS BURNT 



the writer, says: "I am happy to give attention to the 
questions in your letter of January 5th in regard to 
Northampton meeting houses. 

It is a historic fact that the gallery fell in the 
second meeting house, during a sermon by Mr. 
Edwards. The date was a Sunday in March, 1737. 
Edwards had just 'laid down his doctrine' from the 
text,*Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish,'when 
the front gallery fell. Something like two hundred 
and fifty persons were seated in the gallery, or under it, 
but by a special providence, it seemed to Edwards, no 
one was killed, or even had a bone broken, and only ten 
were hurt, 'so as to make any great matter of it'. The 
catastrophe hastened the completion of the new 
meeting house, the third already underway. 

George Whitefield visited Northampton in October, 
1740. 'He preached here,' says Mr. Edwards, 'four 
sermons in the meeting house (besides a private lecture 
in my house), one on Friday, another on Saturday, and 
two on the Sabbath. The congregation was extra- 
ordinarily melted by every sermon, almost the whole 
assembly being in tears for a great part of sermon time'. 
It is improbable that David Brainerd ever preached 
here. If he ever did it was during the absence of 
Mr. Edwards. For in his funeral sermon, published in 
his works. Vol. Ill, 'True Saints, when absent from the 
body, are present with the Lord,' — preached October 
12, 1747, he says of Brainerd, 'He had extraordinary 
gifts for the pulpit. I never had opportunity to hear him 
preach, but have often heard him pray'. It is not 
likely that Brainerd was strong enough to preach after 
reaching Northampton, for Edwards says, 'When Mr. 
Brainerd came hither, he had so much strength as to 
be able from day to day to ride out two or three 
miles and to return, and sometimes to pray in the 
family; but from this time he gradually but quickly 

25 



decayed and became weaker and weaker.' Edwards 
says, 'His funeral was attended by eight of the 
neighboring ministers and seventeen other gentle- 
men of liberal education, and a great concourse of 
people ' ". 

The Marquis Lafayette, when in Northampton 
in 1825, was taken to the meeting house of the First 
Church and introduced to a large company of ladies. 
Henry Clay, who visited Northampton in 1833, 
attended worship in the church. In 1852 the Hungarian 
orator and patriot, Louis Kossuth, addressed a great 
concourse of people in the church. 

The present handsome brown stone structure was 
erected immediately after the burning of the fourth 
meeting house in 1876. Its ivy covered walls are 
one of the beautiful sights of Northampton in the 
summer season. 

The Second Congregational Church (Unitarian), 
sometimes called in former times "The Church of the 
Three Judges", was formed from a liberal element 
in the First Church, February 22, 1825, and a house 
of worship built and dedicated that year. The church 
was composed of such leading citizens of Northampton 
as Judge Joseph Lyman, Judge Samuel Howe, head of 
the law school, Judge Samuel Hinckly, Judge Samuel 
F. Lyman, Judge Charles E. Forbes, George Bancroft, 
the historian. Judge Charles P. Huntington, Samuel 
Clarke, Christopher Clarke, father of the present 
Christopher Clarke, and their families. The first boy 
baptized in the church was Christopher Clarke now 
in the eighty fifth year of his age- 

The loss of so many of the leading members of its 
only church stirred the town to the depths. 

The covenant under which the church was organ- 
ized in 1825, is quite unique and strictly Congrega- 
tional in its simplicity. It is worded as follows: 

26 




ELM SET OUT BY JONATHAN EUWARD.S IX 173 




UNITARIAN CHURCH, NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 



"We disciples of Jesus Christ, having a firm belief 
in his religion, and desiring to receive the benefit of its 
ordinances, do hereby engage to walk together as a 
Christian Church in the faith and order of the Gospel; 
praying that we may be able to strengthen the bonds 
of mutual love and Christian fellowship; to animate 
one another in the path of duty; to become confirmed 
in the knowledge and practice of the truth; and in the 
fear and love of God to seek the pardon of our sins, 
and the gift of eternal life, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen". 

The first house of worship built by the Unitarian 
society was of wood and was destroyed by fire June 
7, 1903. The present brick structure was designed 
by Kirkham and Parlett, of Springfield, Massachusetts, 
and is of the same general style as the former house. 
The interior is marvelously beautiful, being of the 
Roman and Grecian ornate style of architecture, the 
most perfect example of its class in the state. The 
exterior with its plain but dignified appearance is an 
appropriate symbol of the simplicity of the church's 
covenant of faith. 

The minister of the church. Rev. Henry G. Smith, 
D. D., writes; "The interior of the church is finished 
harmoniously in the classic style, with pilasters and 
cornice. At the pulpit end, columns, with composite 
capitals, emphasize the character of the architecture, 
and at the gallery end of the church the organ frame 
carries out the general architectural scheme very sym- 
metrically. The pulpit is of graceful outline with the 
double stairway. Four memorial windows of ex- 
ceptional beauty are prominent on the sides. The 
lighting of the church is mainly by the indirect method, 
the electric lights being hidden behind the cornice and 
illuminating from the cove". 

27 



In 1833 the Old First saw a considerable number 
of persons, described as "an element more demonstra- 
tive in its religious zeal than the majority of the 
members", withdraw from its membership and, 
adopting for their "banner of conservatism the celebra- 
ted name of Jonathan Edwards", organize the Edwards 
Congregational church. The first pastor of the 
Edwards church was Rev. John Todd, famous as the 
author of the "Student's Manual". 

Referring to the halftone of Edwards which ac- 
companies this sketch, it is to be said that the original 
picture was painted at Boston about 1740 by John 
Smybert, an artist of reputation, who came to America 
with Bishop Berkley in 1728. In 1828 Rembrandt Peale, 
of Philadelphia, copied this portrait. The halftone 
is from a photographic copy of an engraving of the 
Peale painting made by Emily Sartain of Philadelphia. 
The picture is believed to be a good likeness of Edwards. 

President Dwight, in his "Travels in Nev; England 
and New York," writing of his visit to Northampton, 
says: "Probably no people were ever more punctual 
in their attendance on public worship than they were 
for one hundred and thirty years from the first settle- 
ment. Fourteen hundred and sixty persons were once 
counted in the church on a Sabbath afternoon, 
amounting to five sixths of the inhabitants." 



28 



The Colrain Pulpit 

IN a letter addressed to the writer, dated January 
20, 1911, Mr. Lorenzo Griswold of Griswoldville, 
Massachusetts, gives the following information 
about the old pulpit an illustration of which appears 
with this sketch : "The meeting house in which our 
beautiful Colonial pulpit was built was erected in 1795. 
The pulpit was made, we suppose, at that time, and is 
consequently, one hundred and sixteen years old. It 
was made by Mr. Jesse Lyons, of Colrain, who died in 
1830. The church in which this pulpit stood was built 
on the west side of North River, about half a mile 
north west of 'Colrain City,' as it is called. The 
pulpit is now in the brick Congregational Church at 
Colrain City, built in 1834. The old church was taken 
down at that time and some of its timbers used in the 
new building. The old pulpit was used in the Town 
Hall, in the lower story of the church, for seventy years 
as the moderator's desk, but in 1904 it was taken up 
stairs into the audience room, repainted white and 
rededicated. It is wholly as it was when it was made, 
no change having been made. There was simply a 
replacing of posts broken or decayed. From this pulpit 
* Priest Taggart ' delivered a eulogy on George 
Washington immediately after his death, and all the 
boys of the town marched to the church with black 
feathers in their caps." Mr. Griswold modestly refrains 
from stating that it was through his interest in the old 
pulpit and his generosity that it was repaired in 1904 
and placed in its present home. Roswell F. Putman, 
Northampton, Massachusetts, was the architect who 
reinstated some of the old lines and lost parts of the 
pulpit. 

29 




KlHSr CHURCH OF CHKIST, SPRIN(4FIELr). MASS. 1819 



The First Church of Christ Springfield, 
Massachusetts 

THE following lines were written by Miss I. F. 
Farrar, of Springfield, and express the feelings 
of a great multitude of people who have 
known and loved the old First Church : 

"How dear to our hearts is the scene of our church home, 
When fond recollection presents it to view ; 
The white pillared entrance, the greensward before it. 
And all the fine elms which our infancy knew. 
The court house beside it, the city hall nigh it ; 
The bright sparkling stream flowing swiftly so near ; 
The sound old First church with a fair record held fast. 
The dear old First church — many years may she last. 

How dear to our hearts is the old First church rooster, 

When near or when far he's presented to view ; 

For years he has stood there with never a murmur, 

And never a whisper of tales that he knew ; 

How much he has seen from the top of the steeple, 

So true to his post as the seer of the church ; 

The bright shining rooster, the patient old rooster, 

The dear faithful rooster that ne'er leaves his perch". 

No one who has looked with care about Springfield 
in the last ninety years has failed to observe the fine 
Colonial house of worship, standing just west of Court 
Square in the heart of the city. It is an impressive 
monument to its builders, the men and women who 
belonged to the First Church a century ago, and reflects 
great credit upon the architect, Isaac Damon, whose 
design was followed in its construction. At present it is 
an object of love and admiration to multitudes of people 
living in and about Springfield. It is the hope of the 
writer that if modern improvements encroach upon 
the land now occupied by the old church some pro- 

31 



vision may be made for its preservation. It seems 
easier to be worshipful in such a home with its associ- 
ations than in some of our modern churches. 

"Wee intend, by God's grace, as soon as we can, 
with all convenient speede, to procure some Godly and 
faithfull minister, with whome we purpose to joyne in 
church covenant to walk in all the ways of Christ". 
These words, the first article of an agreement, bearing 
date May 14, 1636, made by the first settlers of 
Springfield, are an eloquent expression of the spirit of 
the men whom William Pynchon, the friend of John 
Winthrop, led through the wilderness from Roxbury 
to establish a new plantation in the fertile valley of 
the Connecticut river. 

The first meeting house in Springfield was erected 
in 1645 and stood near the south east corner of Court 
Square. 

The Honorable Henry Morris, describing the 
structure in an address delivered in Springfield, June 
22, 1875, said : "This meeting house was forty feet long 
and twenty five feet wide, and faced south, on the one 
rod road, leading to the training field and burial ground, 
since made wider and called Elm street. It had two 
large windows on each side, and one smaller one at 
each end ; it had a shingled roof— a rare thing in that 
day— and two turrets, one designed for a bell, the other 
for a watch tower". 

For a little more than three decades this building 
stood as a witness to the zeal of the first settlers of the 
town for the public worship of God. Among the 
worshipers in this house was Deacon Samuel Chapin, 
whose heroic figure in bronze, representing the Puritan 
character, stands in the heart of the city which he 
helped to found. 

On the terrible day in 1675 when the Indians 
attacked the settlement and destroyed many houses 

32 




THE FIRST nIEli:xI^G house:. 



and much property, the meeting house, which was 
fortified, narrowly escaped destruction. In 1677 it was 
taken down and the second house of worship erected 
near the south west angle of Court Square. This was 
a much larger and more commodious building than 
the first. Rev. Robert Breck, over whose settlement 
as pastor there was a long and bitter controversy, but 
whose pastorate extended over a period of forty nine 
years, or until his death, preached in this second 
house of worship for the first seventeen years of his 
ministry. 

It was not until after seventy five years of service 
that this second meeting house gave place in 1752 to 
the third structure, the immediate predecessor of the 
present beautiful house of worship. The third house 
stood directly east of the ground occupied by the pre- 
sent building and was more pretentious than its prede- 
cessors, being sixty feet long, forty six feet wide, and 
twenty six feet high between joints. The main entrance 
was on the east side, but there was also an entrance 
through the tower. It had a high pulpit and square 
pews. In the tower was a clock and the tapering spire 
was surmounted by the copper weathercock, which in 
the present day looks down from its elevated perch 
upon the busy scenes in the streets below. 

In an article printed in a local paper many years 
ago the following sketch of the third meeting house 
was given : "Beyond the sheds (standing partly on 
Elm street and partly on the south west comer of the 
present Court square) stood the church, holding on 
the finger of its steeple the same golden rooster that 
to-day wags his thin tail in all weathers. The church, 
at this time, some 25 years old, was 60 feet by 46, with 
a tower on the lane, but the main entrance toward the 
east. The seats were square, and the pulpit high, 
extending over the deacon seats, which faced the con- 

33 



gregation. Above was a ponderous sounding board, 
and nervous people used to fear, during sermon time, 
that the sounding board would fall into the pulpit, and 
that on to the deacons below. The deacon's hat is 
spoken of by old people as a peculiar insignia of office, 
which, with powdered hair, made them look venerable 
enough. The broad galleries held as many as the 
body seats, and in a back and high corner, nearest the 
shingles, the colored people took their religion, which 
may suggest the origin of our 'nigger heaven.' 
Twenty five years before, the Chinese wall through the 
congregation, dividing males and females, was broken 
down, but it took all the wisdom the selectmen and 
deacons could command to assign the seats 'either 
higher or lower as they should judge most mete.' 
The meeting house was not warmed in those days, 
and the preacher often pointed to the ceiling with his 
big worsted mitten, while the women used foot stones 
and everybody else knocked heel against heel." 

The building of this third house of worship was 
an important event in the ministry of Mr. Breck, who 
preached from its pulpit until his death in 1784. It 
was while the congregation was worshiping in this 
house that the Rev. Samuel Osgood, began his pastor- 
ate of forty five years of active service and almost a 
decade more of pastoral relation. 

The beautiful Colonial structure, which now 
stands west of Court Square, was erected in 1819. 
Isaac Damon, the builder of bridges, who had a few 
years before designed and built in Northampton the 
largest and most elaborate church in western 
Massachusetts, was engaged as architect of the 
new house in Springfield. The writer has been 
unable to ciscertain where Damon obtained his design 
for the Springfield church. The exterior is very unlike 
that of the church he built in Northampton, but bears 

34 




THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 1752 



a striking resemblance to certain old houses of 
worship, which were standing at the time in eastern 
Massachusetts, and also to St. Michael's church, 
Charleston, South Carolina, which was built in 1761. 

The interior of the church was patterned after 
the interior of the Northampton house. Doubtless 
Damon looked about and followed other designs, with 
modifications of his own devising. It may be seen 
from the accompanying illustration that the house is a 
fine example of the Colonial building. It is well 
proportioned, a fact not true of the church in Charleston, 
South Carolina, which Damon may have had in mind. 
The portico, with its Ionic columns and other orna- 
mentations, is very beautiful, especially when seen in 
the moonlight. The tower with its several forms is of 
right proportions and makes an impressive appearance. 
It would be more effective as a work of architecture if 
it were more highly ornamented. A well known 
architect recently said to the writer, "I never see the 
tower of the First Church without wishing that they 
would allow me to finish it." The implied criticism 
is just An examination of the spire of St. Michael's 
church in Charleston, South Carolina, made by the 
writer, shows how the spire of the First Church might 
have been greatly improved in appearance. Probably 
the people at the time did not have sufificient means 
to carry out the architect's ideas. Damon certainly 
knew how to make his churches most elaborate and 
beautiful. A glance at the picture of the church he 
built in Northampton furnishes proof of this. 

Some inquiries regarding the interior features of 
the First Church meeting house called forth the 
following response from Rev. Henry M. Parsons, 
D. D., Toronto, Canada, who was pastor of the church 
from 1854 to 1870 : "The rumor concerning Jenny Lind, 
who sang in the church at her concert in the city, is 

35 



doubtless true. She said after her concert, that the 
auditorium for its acoustic properties, was the finest 
she had used in all her concerts in America. The 
highest note and the lowest whisper can be heard 
with equal clearness in every part of the room. 

The dimensions of the room and the concave 
ceiling contribute to this result. The room is seventy 
feet square, and the concave circular ceiling is seven 
and a half feet deep in the center. The ceiling is sus- 
tained by pickets from the framework, fastened to the 
rafters of the roof above. Where Mr. Damon obtained 
his patterns for the church and why his plan differed 
from that of the Northampton house, I do not know. 
The weathercock on the top of the spire was un- 
doubtedly to remind the church of Peter's warning 
and constitute a call to repentance." 

The gallery, which extends around three sides of 
the church, is very spacious and is supported by 
eighteen beautiful Ionic columns. On the platform in 
front of the pulpit is a beautiful communion table, 
purchased in Boston about 1818; also a fine old chair, 
known as the Osgood chair, in use before Dr. Osgood 
began his pastorate in 1809. The church has some 
rare old communion pieces, which are kept in a safe 
place and are highly prized. 

Miss I. F. Farrar has written of the First Church 
rooster: "The city's oldest inhabitant is probably the 
First Church rooster. He arrived in town over 150 years 
ago. He is a much larger bird than one would think 
at first sight, measuring four feet from tail to beak and 
weighing 49 pounds. A few papers and records are 
stored with him for safe keeping. 

If he would only speak, many a tale would he 
have to tell. He watched the first President roll up 
the river road in his coach and four and enter Parson's 
tavern, now no more. He saw the troops form which 

36 




KOOSIKH ANI> <»S(;(>()I) ClIAll; 



should represent Springfield in the Revolutionary war, 
the war of 1812, the Civil war and the Spanish war. 
He watched the steamboats ply between Hartford and 
Springfield when there were no falls to bar the way. 
He saw the ferries move slowly from the Agawam to 
the Springfield meadows, conveying the people to 
church, the only church for miles around. He heard 
the long discussions over the feasibility of building a 
bridge over the Connecticut, when the old men shook 
their heads and said: 'You might as well try to bridge 
the Atlantic ocean !' He sighs over the change from 
the six-horse coaches rolling in from Albany and 
Boston, discharging their loads of gentles and ladies 
in wigs and ruffles and buckles, to the automobiles of 
today, whizzing by with their occupants so disguised 
in goggles, linen dusters and rubber suits that he 
sometimes wonders what those creatures are ! He 
has gazed calmly down on all sorts of doings on Court 
square, from the whipping-post of early days to the 
popcorn venders of the last band concert. He guarded 
the body of John Quincy Adams, lying in state in the 
church below him; he listened to the silvery notes of 
Jenny Lind in the same church. He saw Charles 
Dickens sail down our river. 

Not only could he tell tales of our own fair city, 
but he is a traveled rooster, having crossed the water 
from his home in England in company with two others 
who have kept the faith on the Old South in Boston 
and the First church in Newburyport. 

In spite of his great age (for he alighted on the 
grandfather of the present edifice) our friend keeps 
perennially young. Years ago he found the fountain 
of youth, which early explorers sought for long in vain, 
and by an occasional dip in that fountain is as fresh 
as he appeared in 1750." 

37 



Rev. F. L. Goodspeed, D. D., kindly sent the follow- 
ing letter to the writer : 

January 27, 1911. 
My dear Mr. Wight : 

I am glad you are writing up the old churches. 

They are worthy of it. The old First Church of 

Springfield ought to be of imperishable interest to the 

community, but I fear it must soon give way to the 

modern craze of newness and commercialism. 

I suppose you have recorded in your book the 
memorable scenes which the old building has witness- 
ed. On March 9, 1848, the body of John Quincy 
Adams lay in state there. On July 1, 1851, it was 
crowded to hear Jenny Lind sing, accompanied by Mr. 
Goldschmidt, who later became her husband. You 
will find an account of it all in the Republican for July 
2, 1851. Saturday, April 24, 1854, Louis Kossuth, the 
Hungarian patriot, delivered a long speech from that 
pulpit. You will find a full account in the Republican 
of the time. I venture to say you have all this and 
much more; John Brown also, and all the rest. 

To me, who put in fourteen of the best years of 
my life there, of course the place is hallowed forever. 
The faces of men like William H. Haile seem to look 
out from the walls. It is well you are putting its 
history and description into permanent form, for the 
church itself will soon be gone. It was a pleasant 
audience room, with good lines, and the acoustic 
properties were perfect. How some of the older ones 
mourned when the "ginger cookies" in the decoration 
gave way to the new ceiling now there ! What memo- 
ries cluster about the place from foundation stones up 
to the historic rooster at the apex of the spire ! 
Cordially yours, 

F. L. Goodspeed. 

38 



The "ginger cookies" referred to in Dr. Goodspeed's 
letter, an illustration of which accompanies this sketch, 
constituted the decoration that formerly extended 
around the circumference of the concave ceiling. The 
illustration was made from a photograph of a model 
still preserved in the tower of the church. The deco- 
ration of the main portion of the ceiling was a clouded 
sky with stars shining through the interstices. To 
the front of the gallery opposite the pulpit platform is 
attached a fine old circular clock, bearing on its dial 
the inscription, "A bequest to the First Parish in 
Springfield by Edward Pynchon, Esq., 1830." 

As early as 1826 a company of missionaries were 
ordained in this church for service in foreign lands, 
and some of the best known foreign missionaries in 
the last century went out from this church. It is 
evident that the missionary spirit was strong among 
its members. Rev. S. H. Calhoun, a member of the 
First Church, who went to Smyrna in 1837 as a 
missionary, wrote just before his death, "Deeper and 
deeper has become my conviction that the work of 
foreign missons is the great mission of Christ's church, 
and that it can be neglected by no organization or 
individual without personal loss." 

Mrs. R. N. Hume, who was married to Mr. Hume 
in the old Whit^ Church in West Springfield and went 
with him to Bombay, returned to Springfield with her 
six children after her husband's death. She united 
with the First Church, and became a teacher in the 
Sunday school. Her children, among whom were the 
now distinguished Robert A. Hume, D. D., and his 
brother Edward, were members of the Sunday school. 

During the pastorate of Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D., 
1809 to 1854, twelve hundred and fifty seven 
members were added to the church. Dr. Osgood was 
a conductor of the Springfield branch of the famous 

39 



under ground railroad, by means of which a large 
number of slaves, fleeing from their Southern masters, 
escaped to Canada and freedom. As many as fifty 
were entertained in one year in Dr. Osgood's home. 

Rev. Edward A. Reed, D. D., now the beloved 
pastor of the Second Congregational church of 
Holyoke, Massachusetts, was pastor of the First Church 
from 1871 to 1878, a period of notable spiritual progress 
in the history of the church. 

The Sunday school of the church was organized 
in 1818, and mid-week services were begun a little 
later. In 1834, Dr. Osgood was earnestly advocating 
total abstinence. 

The present organ was built and installed in 1881, 
a projection having been built for it at the west end 
of the church. The organ contained fifty stops, twenty 
three hundred and eleven pipes and nine pedal 
movements. It was first exhibited to the public 
December 5, 1881. 

The high pulpit of the church was first lowered 
in 1854. It is of interest to note that the standard of 
the telescope in use at the summit house on Mount 
Holyoke was made of wood taken from the old pulpit. 

Some of the oldest members of the church have 
been heard to say that in their younger days, when 
interest in the sermon flagged, they were accustomed to 
direct their attention to the upper part of the church, 
and occupy the time in counting the "cookies" that 
extended in an almost endless number around the cir- 
cumference of the concave ceiling. 

The Rev. Neil McPherson, D. D., was installed as 
pastor of the First Church, January 2, 1911. 



40 



The Old Square Pew of the Ludlow 
Church 

ONE of the first steps taken by the town 
of Ludlow, Massachusetts, was the ap- 
pointment in town meeting of a committee 
to set "a stake upon a meeting house lot." The first 
houses in the town were erected about 1750, but it was 
not until after the close of the war of the Revolution 
that the resources of the people warranted the building 
of a meeting house. Then again a "stake" was set upon 
a site for a house of worship and measures adopted 
for building the house. In the records of the town we 
read : "October 23, 1783. Town meeting at the stake. 
Voted that the building committee procure a sufficient 
quantity of rum for raising the meeting house frame." 

The raising of the great frame of the meeting 
house in that day was an exciting event, the entire 
community, men and women, old and young, joining 
in the work. Strong armed men came from towns 
around to lend their assistance. From a perusal of 
the records of the time one receives the impression 
that the raising of the meeting house in the various 
settlements of the Connecticut valley was an event 
attended with much cheerfulness and jollity. For the 
women and girls there was work to be done in the 
preparation of food and spreading of tables, much food, 
as well as considerable drink, being required for the 
occasion. 

The meeting house which was raised in 1783, 
owing to the poverty of the people, was not finished 
until 1795. A carpenter's bench sufficed for a pulpit 
and rough planks placed upon blocks did service as 

41 



pews. A high pulpit, "perched like an eagle's nest far 
up some dizzy height," was built later and square pews 
took the place of the rude seats of the first years. 

At the organization of the church in 1789 a heavy 
communion service was presented by the mother town, 
upon which was inscribed, "Springfield 1st Church, 
1742." 

In reply to a letter of inquiry regarding the square 
pew, which is still preserved in the original house of 
worship, the present minister of the church, Rev. John 
S. Curtis, says: "The pew no doubt dates back nearly 
to the year of the raising of the meeting house. The 
original house still stands. It is owned by the town 
and used as a hall." 

The second meeting house of the First Church 
was erected in 1840 and has been described by a former 
resident of Ludlow, Rev. J. W. Tuck, as "a comely 
building." It had a tall spire. This house shared the 
fate of many of the old frame meeting houses, having 
been destroyed by fire January 15, 1859. Only the 
foundation stones and the topmost ball of the spire 
escaped consumption by the raging flames. 

The house of worship, now standing on the 
common, loved by the people of Ludlow and admired 
by visitors, is the successor of the house burnt in 1859, 
and was promptly erected in that year. 

There are some quaint epitaphs in the cemeteries 
in the town of Ludlow. One in the East yard reads : 

"Return my friends without a tear 
Devote your life unto God's fear : 
That you with him may always live 
This is the last advice 1 give." 

One infers from epitaphs found in the old ceme- 
teries of the land that once men and women thought 
it their duty, when dying, to give the best advice they 

42 




(»T.U SQUAKK PKW. Lll|)I.(»\V. MASS. 



knew of to the friends left behind. An epitaph in the 
old Center yard reads : 

"In memory of Doc Philip Lyon, who died July 26, 1802, aged 40 
years. Who after having experienced the sweets of connubial bliss 
died leaving no family. His amiable consort died at Randolph, Oct. 
1801." 

An epitaph in the Center yard reads: 

"Praises on tombs are 

titles vainly spent, 

A man's good name is 

his best monument." 

Another in the North yard reads : 

"The longest life must have 
an end 
Therefore beware how 
time you spend." 

Dr. O. W. StoLighton, of Ludlow, kindly took the 
photograph from which the accompanying illustration 
of the old pew was made. 



43 



The First Church of Christ in Hartford, 
Connecticut 

THE Dutch, who ascended the Connecticut river 
and in 1633 purchased a tract of land of the 
Pequots, where the city of Hartford is now 
situated, thus endeavoring to gain a foothold in the 
territory, were actuated by political and commerical 
motives, and made no effort to establish the institutions 
of religion or build a house of worship in the region. 

Not so in the case of Rev. Thomas Hooker, Rev. 
Samuel Stone, Mr. William Goodwin, and their com- 
panions, who came from Newtown in the summer of 
1636 to establish a plantation below Agawam in the 
Connecticut valley. 

"Gather my saints together unto me; those that have 
made a covenant with me by sacrifice," is a passage 
that has most appropriate application to Mr. Hooker 
and his companions. Their first thought was of the 
church and its institutions and their arrival may be 
said to mark the beginning of organized Christianity in 
Hartford. They built their church edifice on "Meeting 
House Yard," land now known as State House Square. 
The edifice was, of course, a temporary structure; while 
the exact date of its erection is uncertain, the house 
was in use from 1635 to 1641. By vote of the town a 
guard of men was provided "to attend with their arms 
fixed, and 2 shote of powder and shott, at least upon 
every publique meeting for religious use." 

In 1640 or 1641 the first meeting house was given 
by the town to Mr. Hooker for a bam and a new 
house was erected upon the eastern side of Meeting 
House Yard. 

45 



A perusal of the records of the period leads to the 
conclusion that work on the second meeting house 
was begun in 1638 and the edifice completed in 1641. 
The new house was used for about a century. 

In notes about meeting houses of the First Eccle- 
siastical Society of Hartford, Mr. C. J. Hoadly gives the 
following description of the second meeting house : 
"The pulpit was on the west side. The building was 
nearly square, with a high roof, in the center of which 
was a turret where hung the bell, brought by the 
settlers, doubtless from Newtown, now Cambridge, 
and placed in the turret when the edifice was first 
erected. There was a door on the north side, perhaps 
also other doors, and near by a horse block for the 
accommodation of those who lived so far off that they 
must ride. The chamber over the porch perhaps 
served as the arsenal for town and colony, as a room 
in the south church did in later times. The windows 
were small and the glass set in lead. Stairs from the 
interior led up to galleries on the south and east sides." 

By the time of the ordination of the Rev. Daniel 
Wadsworth as pastor of the church in 1732 the old 
house of worship had become inadequate and was 
constantly in need of repairs. A movement was begun 
for building a new meeting house. However, eleven 
years were required to determine the site of the new 
edifice, and work on the structure did not begin until 
June 20, 1737. The General Assembly fixed the situa- 
tion of the house on "the south east part of the 
burying lot in Hartford, with part of Capt. Nathaniel 
Hooker's lot adjoining thereto." The plan of the 
house was made by Cotton Palmer, of Warwick, Rhode 
Island. About a week was required for the raising of 
the ficime of the new house. Considerable quantities 
of cider and rum were consumed by those employed 
in the raising. The house, including the steeple, was 

46 




FIKST CHIIRCH OF CHRIST, HARTFORD 



practically finished by the end of 1739. It stood 
sidewise to the street. The steeple, which was sur- 
mounted by a gilded cock and ball, stood on the north 
end. The pulpit, which was on the west side, "arose 
to an altitude easily commanding every foot of the 
surrounding galleries, and was furnished with an 
imposing canopy or sounding board and the handsome 
window hangings behind." 

The house was dedicated December 30, 1739, Rev. 
Daniel Wadsworth preaching the sermon from Haggai 
2 : 9 ;- "The glory of this latter house shall be greater 
than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts." Rev. 
George Whitefield visited Hartford in 1740 and 
preached to a vast throng of people in the new house 
of worship. 

Near the close of 1804 a committee was appointed 
by the society to consider the matter of building a new 
edifice, the house dedicated in 1739 having become 
"scanty and dilapidated." March 22, 1805, this com- 
mittee made a favorable report and steps were at once 
taken to secure funds for the new building. The old 
house was sold December 2, 1805, and work on the 
foundation of the new edifice was begun March 6, 1806. 
The site of the new house was substantially the same 
as that of the old. George Leon Walker, in his "History 
of the First Church in Hartford," referring to the 
building of the fourth meeting house of the society, 
says : "The work progressed with vigor, and with some 
alcoholic aid after the fashion of the times, and the 
month of December, 1807, saw the congregation ready 
to remove from the theatre in Theatre street (now 
Temple), where they had worshipped in the interim 
between the two meeting houses." 

The house was dedicated December 3, 1807, the 
occasion and the fame of the pastor, Dr. Nathan 
Strong, who preached the dedicatory sermon, attracting 

47 



a great concourse of people from Hartford and 
neighboring towns. There were square pews in parts 
of this fourth house. The high pulpit was supported 
by fluted columns and ascended by spiral stairs. 
Stoves were not used in this house until 1815. 

President Timothy Dwight who visited Hartford 
in September, 1820, in his "Travels" thus described the 
new house of worship : "The Church belonging to the 
first Congregation is one of the handsomest buildings 
in the state. It is sixty four feet in front, forty feet 
high, and one hundred in length, exclusive of the 
portico. All of the columns which decorate the 
building are Ionic, and of wood. The ceiling within 
rests upon eight columns, which are fluted. The pulpit 
is of varnished wood, resembling light colored mahoga- 
ny, standing on fluted columns. The ascent to it is by 
a circular flight of stairs on each side. On the outside 
of the building six steps of dark brown free-stone ex- 
tend throughout the whole front, including the portico, 
which projects sixteen feet and is forty long, and con- 
sists of eight columns; four in front; and the four 
corresponding ones against the wall support the inner 
entablature. Behind the portico rises the brick tower 
to the height of seventy feet. The remaining part of 
the tower is of wood, of three distinct stories ; each 
surmounted by a balustrade. The first of these stories, 
contains the bell ; is square, and finished with twelve 
columns ; three at each angle. The second is an octa- 
gon, with sixteen columns, clustering so closely around 
it as to admit of no other ornament. The third is also 
an octagon, with a column at each angle; but the 
spaces between them are yet unoccupied by appropriate 
decorations. Upon the pedestals, corresponding to all 
the columns, are urns or acorn shaped balls ; except 
over the group of sixteen, where two pedestals are 
with urns, and two without, alternately. The ap- 

48 



pearance of the whole is incomplete, from it not being 
finished with a lofty spire, but terminating in a low 
octagon, like the upright part of a drum light, crowned 
with urns surrounding the shaft, bells, and rod common 
to most churches. The whole height to the vane is 
one hundred and sixty five feet." 

A glance at the picture of the exterior of the 
church, accompanying this sketch, will show that the 
edifice now standing is the one President Dwight 
described in his "Travels." He was surely an observing 
traveler and a rather exacting critic of what he saw. 
He plainly stated, however, that he regarded the 
meeting house in Hartford as a beautiful structure, if 
not perfect in all its parts. 

Rev. Nathan Strong, who was ordained pastor 
of the church January 5, 1774, and who preached 
the sermon at the dedication of the new house of 
worship, December, 1807, continued as pastor until his 
death, December 24, 1816, in the forty third year of his 
ministry over the church. The high pulpit, whose 
elevation had been determined by Dr. Strong, was 
lowered once in 1816. In 1835 both galleries and 
pulpit were lowered, the galleries nearly five feet and 
the pulpit an uncertain distance. In 1839 carpets were 
put into the aisles for the first time and in 1845 furnaces 
were substituted for stoves. The present bell, which 
is "supposed to contain in it material of its predecessors, 
inclusive of the old Newtown bell of 1632," was purchas- 
ed by virtue of a vote passed in January, 1850. In 1852 
the old pulpit was taken out and a new one placed in 
a recess built for it; the square pews were removed 
and slips placed in every part of the building; changes 
were made in the windows at the sides of the house 
and those in the west end closed up; gas fixtures were 
procured and "a new arch thrown over the center of 
the audience room between the supporting columns," 

49 



the building being "brouglit to substantially its present 
interior aspect." 

The evidence seems to show that Daniel 
Wadsworth, "the Maecenas of Hartford," made the 
original plan for the present house of worship. Prior 
to the erection of this edifice the meeting house in 
Wethersfield, built in 1761, was the finest meeting 
house in the colony. 

Returning to the founders of the First Church 
of Hartford, Rev. Thomas Hooker and his companions, 
it can truly be said of these men that they were not 
merely the founders of a church but also the builders 
of a free commonwealth. American democracy was 
born when Hooker in his memorable sermon said, 
"The foundation of authority is laid firstly, in the free 
consent of the people." 

It is interesting to note that the building of the 
present meeting house of the First Church antedates 
the organization of the American Board of Foreign 
Missions. Not until more than ten years after this 
house was built was a Sunday school organized in 
Hartford. 

The beautiful and costly parish house of the First 
Church was opened November 19, 1909. It is a replica 
of the interior of the church. The story of its origin 
and construction is set forth in the following inscription: 

"In Memory of Francis Buell Cooley this site 
was secured and this house was erected by 
The First Church of Christ in Hartford from 
the gift of his family, Mrs. Francis Buell Cooley, 
Francis Rexford Cooley, Sarah Cooley Hall, 
Charles Parsons Cooley, Clara Cooley Jacobus." 

Rev. Rockwell Harmon Potter, D. D., is the devoted 
and beloved pastor of this historic church, having been 
installed in 1900. 



50 



The Second Church of Christ in Hartford, 
Connecticut 

IN reply to a letter addressed by the writer to Rev. 
Edwin Pond Parker, D. D., pastor of the Second 
Church of Christ in Hartford, December 7, 1910, 
the following communication was received from Dr. 

P?ii"kGr ' 

Hartford, December 14, 1910. 

Rev. C. A. Wight, 

Dear Sir : , , , 

In reply to yours of December 7, 1 would say : 
The "Second Church of Christ in Hartford," of 

which I have been pastor now for 51 consecutive years, 

was organized in the year 1670. 

It has had three meeting houses. The first one 

was erected sometime after 1670, probably about 1674. 

The second one, in 1753-4. 

The third one, (our present house) was dedicated 

in 1827. .^ . , 

The interior of this house was considerably 
modified in 1845, and a two storied transept was built 
on to the rear of the church to furnish Sunday school 
and chapel accommodations. 

In the autumn of 1909, and in view of the pastor s 
approaching fiftieth anniversary, the entire building, 
without and within, was renovated and beautifully 
restored to its original Colonial simplicity, at an 
expense of about ten thousand dollars. The mahogany 
pulpit, sofa, and communion table, which were in the 
sanctuary at its dedication, were restored to their old 
places and uses. In the vestibule are tablets, one 
inscribed with the names of the original members of 

51 



the church, the other with the names of the successive 
pastors. Many pieces of very old silver are still in use. 

This meeting house, as it now stands, is universally 
admired as a singularly beautiful example of the 
Colonial style, and yet the name of the architect is 
unknown. 

In the course of 240 years this church has had 10 
ministers, and the average term of the pastorate is 
therefore 24 years. 

Yours sincerely, 

Edwin P. Parker. 

The house of worship, which Dr. Parker refers to 
in his letter as the first edifice of the Second Church, 
probably stood in the highway, now Main street, on 
the east side. In his history of the Second Church of 
Hartford, Dr. Parker states that this meeting house 
was probably a square wooden structure with a 
truncated pyramidal roof, similar to the "square 
meeting houses" common in New England in the 
latter part of the seventeenth century. 

"Old house of Puritanic wood, 
Through whose unpainted windows streamed, 
On seats as primitive and rude 
As Jacob's pillow when he dreamed, — 
The white and undiluted day." 

The second meeting house, the edifice which Dr. 
Parker states was erected in 1753-4, stood "in the high- 
way, a little north of the house of Mr. Joseph 
Buckingham." The site was fixed by a committee of 
the General Assembly, the congregation having failed 
to agree upon a situation for the house. The highway 
referred to is now known as Buckingham street. 
Thomas Seymour, in his "Memorandum Book," made 
the following entry regarding this house of worship : 
"And the Rev. and Pious George Whitefield (provi- 

52 




SKCOXD ('HURCH OF (FiUlST, HAlMFOi;!) 



dentially here) preached the first sermon that w<is ever 
preached in it, and this was on Monday, the second 
day of December, Anno Dom., 1754,— a good omen for 
a new meeting house." 

This second house of worship was constructed of 
wood and had three entrances, one on the east side 
and one at either end. There was a steeple at the 
north end. Like other meeting houses of the time, it 
was furnished within with square pews, galleries, and 
a high pulpit with a sounding board. 

In 1825 the structure of 1753-4, standing "in the 
highway," had become an obstruction to the city's 
travel and traffic. It was also weakened by age, and 
for some time its removal had been earnestly advocated 
in meetings of the society. January, 1825, the society 
voted "to build a new meeting house and to establish 
a place where it shall be erected." The site of the 
present house of worship was chosen. 

Certificates of stock were issued to the amount of 
$12,000 for the purpose of building the new house. In 
1828 a further issue of stocks amounting to $11,000 
was made, a total of $23,000. This sum included the 
cost of an organ and certain alterations in the structure 
not anticipated in the original plan. 

This third house of worship was dedicated April 
11, 1827. The Courant of April 16, 1827, referring to 
the dedicatory services, says: 'The building itself is 
finished in elegant style, and the society deserves 
credit, for the laudable spirit and enterprise manifested 
in its erection." 

The edifice barely escaped destruction by fire July 
7, 1884, only the efficient work of the firemen saving it. 
Alterations and repairs were made in 1873. At this 
time the windows were entirely renewed, a new plat- 
form and pulpit provided, the large window behind 
the pulpit sealed up, and the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, 

53 



and texts of Scripture inscribed upon it The house 
was painted outside and within. 

An ecclesiastical council was convened in the 
Second Church, January 11, 1860, and at its conclusion 
voted to approve of Rev. Edwin Pond Parker and 
proceed to ordain and install him pastor of the church. 
The vote was not quite unanimous, Mr. Parker, in the 
course of the rigid and prolonged examination to which 
he was subjected, had let fall "a most unfortunate 
expression," that "God would give every man a fair 
chance." This expression was drawn from the candi- 
date by certain questions relating to a possible pro- 
bation after death. The proceedings of the council, 
the questions discussed in the course of the examina- 
tion of the candidate, and the diversity of views held 
by the members of the council, gave rise to a somewhat 
prolonged and heated theological controversy in 
southern New England and New York. Dr. Parker's 
historic pastorate of more then half a century over the 
Second Church is ample proof of the wisdom of the 
council of 1860 in approving 'and installing him as 
pastor of the church. 

The Rev. Rockwell Harmon Potter, D. D., minister 
of the First Church of Christ of Hartford, in an 
informal communication addressed to the writer, 
January 25, 1911, referring to the edifice of the Second 
Church, generously says : "Our meeting house, built in 
1807, is not so fine as the meeting house of the Second 
Church built in 1820, but with this one exception I 
consider it the finest house of its type in New 
England." It is probably just to state that the two 
finest houses of worship built in New England 
between 1800 and 1850 are the meeting houses of the 
First and Second Churches of Christ in Hartford. 
These structures with their noble towers are indeed 
worthy of their builders, testifying as they do to the 

54 



love of the beautiful, the excellent taste, a proper 
sense of the dignity belonging to things devoted to the 
worship of God, and the heavenly aspirations, possessed 
by the men and women who composed the congre- 
gations of these historic churches when the present 
houses of worship were erected. 



55 



The Church in Hadley, Massachusetts 

SUMMER time in New England knows no 
more bewitching spot than the broad street of 
Hadley, where stand the old church and town 
hall clothed in their handsome Colonial garb. The very 
weathercock, perched on the steeple of the church, 
seems to swell with pride, as he looks down upon the 
beautiful scene below and meditates upon the rich 
historical associations of the more than two hundred 
and fifty years that have passed since the men from 
Hartford and Wethersfield built their homes at 
Norwottuck, afterwards by order of the General Court 
denominated Hadley. 

Mrs. F. H. Smith of Hadley, Massachusetts, in an 
article written at the time of the one hundredth 
anniversary of the building and dedication of the 
present meeting house in Hadley, says : "In the latter 
part of the year 1661 the town voted to erect a 'meeting 
house to be a place of publick worship, whose figure is 
45 foote in length and 24 foote in Bredth, with Leantos 
on both sides which shall Inlarge the whole to 36 
in Bredth. This shall be scituated and sett upon 
the common street' Not until 1670, when the 
inhabitants on the west side of the river were set 
apart as the town of Hatfield, was this building 
completed." Work on the building was begun some- 
time before the division of the town was made and it 
was placed north of the center of the common for the 
accommodation of the people living on the west side of 
the river. 

Like many of the meeting houses of the region, 
the structure was a small square building made of logs 
and had a turret or belfry rising from the center 



57 



of the roof. The building stood on an elevation of the 
common near a small goose pond. It is said that the 
"squawking" of the geese sometimes made it difficult 
to hear the voice of the preacher. 

Mrs. F. H. Smith, in the article already mentioned, 
says : "The first church bell to startle the echoes in 
Mt. Holyoke's wooded crags was bought in 1670. The 
turret for the bell was in the center of the four-sided 
roof and the bell rope hung down in the broad aisle 
where the ringer stood." 

In 1713 the town voted, "That we will build a 
new Meeting Hous," and that "the Meting house that 
we have agreed to build shall be forty foot in length 
and forty foot in breadth with a flatfish roof and a 
Bellcony on one end of said house." 

This second house of worship was finished in 
1714 and stood at a point half way down the broad 
street near where it intersects the Northampton road. 
Sometime after it was built quite extensive im- 
provements were made in the interior of the house, 
and in 1738 Eleazer Porter built a sounding board and 
canopy for it. Judd's History of Hadley has the follow- 
ing foot-note : "Such a structure over the preacher and 
pulpit was named sounding board and canopy in 
England. In this country it was several feet high, had 
a peculiar form, with several sides and angles, and 
was generally of very nice workmanship as well as the 
projecting front of the pulpit." A spire about one 
hundred feet high was added to the church sometime 
after 1753. It is believed that the weathercock, 
purchased in London, was placed upon the spire at 
this time. Bailey's Dictionary, 1737, says : "The cock 
is generally placed on the tops of steeples in England, 
and is called the weathercock." 

This second meeting house was used for nearly a 
century, having been sold and moved away in the fall 

58 



V 




CliriiCll AND'IOWN IIAl.l.. HADl.KV 



of 1808. George Whitefield preached in this meeting 
house on one occasion in 1740. Judd in his History of 
Hadley, referring to Whitefield's visit, observes, "It has 
been said that when he preached in Hadley, his voice 
was heard in Hatfield." Whitefield was not allowed 
to preach in Hatfield, but many of the people of that 
place went to Northampton and Hadley to hear him. 

The present house of worship in Hadley dates 
from 1808 and was erected near the site of the second 
meetinghouse. The only part of the second church 
used in the new building was the weathercock, which 
was regilded and mounted in its place. The architect 
of the third house is unknown. The steeple was 
patterned after that of the North Church, Boston, on 
which the lantern was hung out for Paul Revere, when 
about to take his famous ride to Lexington "through 
every Middlesex village and farm." 

The chairman of the building committee was once 
a lawyer in Boston and the contractor was a Boston 
man. The influence of Sir Christopher Wren is seen 
in the tower of the church. 

The writer of this sketch does not deem it neces- 
sary in the treatment of his theme to give an account 
of the difficulties and differences, which resulted in the 
moving of the meeting house from its ancient site to 
the present situation on Middle street and the building 
of a second house of worship by the occupants of West 
street. The bitter contention, described by one writer 
as 'The Feud of the Streets," has subsided, and more 
than a score of years ago the meeting house on West 
street ceased to be used for religious purposes and 
most of the attendants joined forces with the church 
on Middle street. 

Let it suffice to say that the meeting house began 
quite a long journey in the fall of 1841. It was not 
until sometime in January of the next year that it was 

59 



set upon its present site on Middle street. Extensive 
alterations were made at this time, again a Boston 
contractor having been engaged. Dr. F. H. Smith, in 
a paper read at the one hundredth anniversary of the 
building of the third meeting house, says: "After 
having been placed on this spot where it now is the 
house suffered a complete remodeling. Gallery, pews, 
and pulpit were taken out. Five years later the lower 
story was divided into two rooms by a partition. In 
1868 and 1869 very extensive improvements were made 
upon the building. The steeple was newly timbered 
and a new bell deck constructed. I do not know 
whether the ceiling was in its present vaulted position 
in the original building of one hundred years ago or 
not. A cornice across the eastern end of the interior 
and the recess behind the pulpit were removed at 
the time of remodeling in 1868 and 1869, and a new 
platform and pulpit were built." In 1902, during the 
pastorate of Rev. Edward E. Keedy, a handsome pipe 
organ was installed in the church. 

The Hadley meeting house is a veritable master- 
piece of Colonial architecture. The beautifully pro- 
portioned spire with its three tastefully ornamented 
architectural forms, each a little varied from the others, 
the delicately wrought hand-carving about the cornice, 
and "the quaint but graceful windows lighting the 
lower and upper vestibules," give to the structure a 
most dignified appearance. 

The town has had no more heroic soul in its long 
history than Rev. John Russell, who brought the first 
settlers . with him from Connecticut in 1659. He it 
was who bravely harbored the "Regicides." The well 
known historian of the Connecticut valley, George 
Sheldon, says of this "greatest hero of Hadley:" 
"Through the anxious days and lingering nights of 
more than ten years, he bravely stood within a hand's 

60 



breadth of the gates of ignominious death. Month 
after month, summer and winter, year after year, 
zealously watching and guarding his trust, John Russell 
was virtually a prisoner within his own hamlet. Under 
his very rooftree he was secreting Edward Whalley 
and William Goffe, two of the patriot judges who 
condemned to the scaffold that misguided and perfidi- 
ous representative of the 'divine rights of kings,' 
Charles I, of England. These two men were now 
proscribed; a price was set upon their heads, and swift 
retribution awaited any who might relieve or conceal 
them." 

The weathercock, which surmounts the steeple 
of the meeting house, is loved and admired by all the 
people of Hadley. The following lines are taken from 
a poem, "The Hadley Weathercock," written by Julia 
Taft Bayne, wife of a former pastor of the church : 

"On Hadley steeple proud I sit, 
Steadfast and true, 1 never flit, 
Summer and winter, night and day, 
The merry winds around me play, 

And far below my gilded feet 
The generations come and go, 
In one uncejising ebb and flow, 

Year after year in Hadley street. 
I nothing care, I only know, 
God sits above. He wills it so; 
While roundabout and roundabout and 

roundabout I go. 
The way o' the wind, the changing wind, 
the way o' the wind to show." 

For more than one hundred and fifty years the 
weathercock has looked down from his lofty perch 
upon the streets and homes of Hadley. 



61 




CHUKCH AND OLD KLM, HATFIELD. AHOIT lsi:(i 



Sketch of the Hatfield Church 

THE Congregational church in Hatfield, Massa- 
chusetts, is a subject well adapted to awaken 
interest in all who love New England insti- 
tutions and ways. At the time of its organization 
there were only three other churches in the Connecti- 
cut valley in Massachusetts, the others being Spring- 
field, organized in 1637; Hadley, organized in 1659; 
Northampton, organized in 1661. 

In the admirable work, "A History of Hatfield," by 
Daniel White Wells and Reuben Field Wells, it is 
stated that the exact date of the organization of the 
church in Hatfield is problematical. The writers evi- 
dently inclined to the belief that the church was organ- 
ized as early as 1670. The pastor, Rev. Hope Atherton, 
was ordained May 10, 1670, and it seems altogether 
probable that he was ordained over the church in 
Hatfield. For almost two hundred and fifty years it 
has been the only Protestant church in the town and 
during all that time the town has escaped the mis- 
fortune of having too many churches or being divided 
by sectarianism. 

The Hatfield church has enjoyed the ministry of 
several eminent divines. Rev. William Williams served 
the church from 1686 to 1741, fifty five years. Rev. 
Timothy Woodbridge, who was ordained as colleague to 
Mr. Williams in 1739, served as minister of the church 
forty one years. Rev. Joseph Lyman, D. D., who was 
ordained in 1772, continued as minister until 1828, fifty 
six years. Rev. John M. Greene, D. D., the friend and 
adviser of Sophia Smith, founder of Smith College, 
was pastor of the Hatfield church from 1857 to 1868. 

63 



Rev. Robert M.Woods, D. D.,who was ordained over the 
church in 1877, continued as pastor until his death in 
1909, a period of thirty two years. Dr. Woods was 
acting pastor for the year previous to his installation. 
These five ministers together gave the church almost 
two hundred years of service. It is not remarkable 
under the circumstances that the church became stable 
and influential. Such a church endears itself to all the 
members of the community. It is so intimately asso- 
ciated with the lives and fortunes of the people that 
it becomes an object of love and veneration. 

The Hatfield church has the distinction of having 
had in its membership Sophia Smith, the founder of 
Smith College, and of having had for its pastor the 
Rev. John M. Greene, D. D., Miss Smith's closest 
adviser at the time she decided to devote her fortune 
to the founding of the college for women in North- 
ampton, Massachusetts. 

The building of the first meeting house in Hat- 
field was begun in 1668 and services of worship were 
held in the house that year, although it was not com- 
pleted until later. It stood in the middle of the street 
at a point a little below the site of the present 
church. It was thirty feet square and had a "four- 
sided roof flat on top." It was without glass in the 
windows and there was no way of heating the building. 

The second meeting house was erected in 1699 
and stood on, or near, the site of the first building. It 
faced east and west and had galleries, a turret and 
bell. There was no way of heating this house. It 
must have been regarded at the time as a worthy 
structure, for it evidently served to some extent as a 
model for some other houses of worship built in the 
same period. The edifices erected about this time in 
Deerfield and Westfield, Massachusetts, were of "Y^ 
bigness of Hatfield meeting house." 

64 




^/ oo 













^a>^6.*^7^.2^^y^:?^^i^^yy^ --/»^^^ 




^^ z^.it .^^ ^^ -^^6:^^^^;:^ : 




S(H'II1.\ SMIIH, KOUXDKR OK S>,iril C.ol I.K.i iK 



The third meeting house was erected in 1750, on 
a site a little south of the former houses, and faced 
north and south. It was fifty six feet long, forty five 
feet wide, and had a belfry and tower with Gothic 
points. Stoves were placed in the vestibule of this 
house and pipes extended through the auditorium. 
This arrangement was a compromise as there was 
opposition to having stoves in the house of worship. 
The building was sold to the late Elijah Bardwell, who 
moved it on to his premises, where it still stands. It 
is the red building in the rear of Mr. F. H. Bardwell's 
residence, and is used for a barn. It was in this house 
that the representatives of fifty towns met in the 
August convention that preceded the Shays' Rebellion 
and drew up their list of twenty five "grievances." 

The late Samuel D. Partridge, in his "Reminis- 
cences," states that this third meeting house had a 
tower built up from the ground, surmounted by a tall 
spire, on the top of which was a brass rooster. He 
also states that about 1850 the belfry and spire were 
taken down and the bell transferred to a tower erected 
on the other end of the building. At this time, 
according to Mr. Partridge, the old pews were taken 
out, slips put in instead, and a platform pulpit substi- 
tuted for the high pulpit. 

The story of the building of the present house of 
worship has never been told in print, so far as the 
writer of this sketch knows, and is now given because 
it affords a fine illustration of the spirit and manner 
in which many of the old time meeting houses were 
erected. 

The parish records of the time are complete and 
furnish the facts here stated. One Ephraim L. Has- 
tings certified that he had posted a warrant on one of 
the south doors of the meeting house, calling for a 
meeting of the First Parish at the Town Hall, January 

65 



15, 1849, at six o'clock, to see what means the parish 
would take to build a new meeting house and dispose 
of the old one. At the parish meeting of the date 
named it was voted to build a new house of worship, 
provided sufficient funds could be raised by the sale of 
slips. J. D. Billings, E. Bardwell, Jr., and Erastus 
Cowles were appointed a committee to see if the 
necessary funds could be obtained. Justin Wait, 
George Wait, Josiah Brown, John A. Billings and 
Jonathan Porter were chosen a committee to procure 
plans, estimate the expense of the new building and 
find a site. 

At an adjourned meeting held January 31, 1849, 
Alonzo Parker, of Conway, brought forward a plan, 
drawn by himself, for the new house. It was an- 
nounced that a site for the house of worship and for 
horse-sheds could be bought of the estate of Benjamin 
Smith, deceased, for the sum of $400. Instructions 
were given to the building committee at this meeting 
to examine the meeting house in Springfield and the 
house in Meriden, Connecticut, and any other houses 
of worship they might think best to inspect. There 
was also talk about a vestry and measures for warming 
the house. It was voted to purchase the proposed site 
for the sum named by the committee. The name of 
George W. Hubbard appears in the records as parish 
clerk at this time. 

February 5, 1849, the building committee reported 
a plan for the meeting house, calling for a structure 
eighty feet long, including a portico in front of seven 
feet, supported by four Ionic columns, and a vestibule of 
ten feet The width of the building proposed was fifty 
feet, and according to the plan there were to be seventy 
six pews on the lower floor and twenty in the gallery, 
with suitable seats for the accommodation of the choir. 
The pews in the new house were appraised at $5,880. 

66 




THE FOUK [OMC COLUMNS 




REV. .lOHN M. GREENE. U. 1). 
TliH Originator of the idea of Suiitli (Jnllege 



A vote to build the house according to the plan pro- 
posed was passed. Nine pews were reserved for the use 
of the parish, one of these being for the pastor's family. 

The pews were appraised at sums varying from 
$12 up to $135. Free pews were not the fashion in 
that day. In February, 1849, at a parish meeting, 
there was a sale of choice of pews. The highest price 
paid for a choice was twenty dollars, Moses Warner 
paying that sum. Sophia and Harriet Smith paid the 
same amount; J. D. Billings paid fifteen dollars. The 
lowest price paid for a choice was one dollar and 
fifty cents. At a later sale Samuel Graves paid eighteen 
dollars. At a meeting of the parish held February 19, 
1849, it was reported that the amount raised from sale 
of pews amounted to $5,839.25. Eleven pews appraised 
at $525 were left unsold. 

At the same meeting it was voted that the com- 
mittee chosen to obtain a plan proceed to procure 
various master builders' proposals and erect a meeting 
house according to the plan already adopted by the 
parish. Jonathan Porter and John A. Billings resigned 
from the committee, and Elijah Bardwell, Jr., and 
Alpheus Cowles were chosen in their stead. 

At an adjourned meeting of the parish, March 12, 
1849, Captain Isaac Damon, it is recorded, came into 
the meeting and "gave a bill to build the house for 
$4,750." The contract was awarded to him and the 
building committee instructed to superintend the 
erection of the new house. 

The writer is unable to ascertain from the records 
what plan it was that was adopted at the parish meet- 
ing February 5, 1849. January 31, Alonzo Parker, of 
Conway, presented a plan for the new house drawn by 
himself. No description of this plan is given in the 
records, unless it be the one given in the record of the 
meeting of February 5th. The fact that Captain 

67. 



Damon came into the meeting of the parish held 
March 12, and was awarded the contract for the new 
building, leads the writer to believe that it was his 
influence that determined the plan for the new house. 
Damon had for many years been a leading architect 
and builder of western Massachusetts. He resided 
near by in Northampton and must have been well 
acquainted with the members of the Hatfield parish. 
The meeting house which he built in Hatfield has 
certain features which suggest the Damon style of 
building. The corner stone of the new house was laid 
May 23, 1849. The record is as follows : 

"May 23d, 1849. The corner stone of the new meeting house 
was this day laid with appropriate ceremonies: an address 
was delivered on the occasion by the Rev. Dr. Woodbridge of 
Hadley. Attest. 

Geo. W. Hubbard, Clerk." 

At a parish meeting held August 27, 1849, the 
matter of "Fresco painting" for the meeting house 
was discussed and a committee appointed to see if 
the sum of three hundred dollars could be raised for 
the purpose. October 16, 1849, a meeting of the 
parish was held to consider the matter of purchasing 
a new bell and disposing of the old one. 

January 28, 1850, there was a report made to the 
parish by the building committee, showing that 
$6,665.13 had been expended in the construction of the 
new house and $400 for the site. The sum of $5,880 
had been realized from the sale of pews and $484.25 
from bids for choice of pews, leaving a deficit of $235. 
At a meeting of the parish held January 29, 1851, it 
wcis voted that the meeting house should not be 
opened for any other purposes than religious meetings 
and rehearsals of the choir, except by permission of 
the parish given by vote at a legal parish meeting. 

68 



It is interesting to learn tliat one of the articles 
in the warrant for the parish meeting held March 25, 
1850, called upon the parish to take action in regard 
to the elm tree in front of the meeting house. In spite 
of this apparent purpose to remove the old tree, it 
was still standing at the close of the Civil war. The 
town clerk, Mr. L. H. Kingsley, thinks it was removed 
about 1865. He has in his possession a cane made 
from the wood of the tree. As may be seen from the 
accompanying illustration it was a noble old tree. It 
is said to have been thirty three feet around the base 
of the trunk. In Memorial Hall is the great iron key 
of the first meeting house. It is nearly seven inches 
in length. 

From the parish records of 1849 and 1850 it 
is learned that the women of the town were active in 
raising funds for the furnishing of the new meeting 
house, no small matter, considering the size and char- 
acter of the building. 

The fathers are entitled to much credit for the 
house of worship which they erected in 1849. The 
building is well proportioned, the tapering spire grace- 
ful and well adapted to the rest of the structure, and 
the portico with its four Ionic columns beautiful and 
impressive. The entire structure is splendidly adapted 
to the surroundings. It seems a pity that the white 
paint, so intimately associated with the old New 
England meeting house, should have been discarded 
by the present generation. Here and there in the 
Connecticut valley some local painter, void of the 
historical sense, has been allowed to cover up the 
white paint, so characteristic of the old meeting 
houses, with a color utterly inharmonious with the 
associations of the building. 

In 1867 extensive changes were made in the pres- 
ent house of worship, the structure of 1849, a vestry 



being constructed and an organ loft built. The parlors 
in the rear of the church were built in 1891. In 1892 
extensive alterations were made in the interior of the 
church. The clock was placed in the steeple in 1898. 
In 1909 a beautiful window was placed in the east 
end of the church in memory of Rev. Robert M. 
Woods, D. D. 

The bell is the third one used. The first one 
weighed about nine hundred pounds and was used 
from the beginning of the eighteenth century until the 
last quarter of the nineteenth. In 1876 it was cracked 
by being rung violently in celebration of the advent of 
July Fourth of that year. It was recast and enlarged, 
but was cracked again July Fourth of the next year. 
It was again recast. It weighs eighteen hundred 
pounds. No music is sweeter to the church going 
people of Hatfield than the sound of this bell. Its 
tones are fixed fast in the boyhood memories of the 
writer of this sketch, and it is with love and gratitude 
that he has written the story of the fourth meeting 
house in Hatfield. This was the meeting house of his 
early life. It was in this house that he made his first 
public confession of Christ and united with the church, 
just before leaving home for college. Here it was in 
earlier days that love of country was fostered in his 
breast by the patriotic discourses of the pastor. Rev. 
John M. Greene, preached during the Civil war, and 
here on the Sunday after President Lincoln's assassin- 
ation he saw the flag of his country draped and hung 
behind the pulpit, and heard the preacher with righteous 
indignation denounce all those whose sentiments 
or deeds had led up to the terrible event of the death 
of Abraham Lincoln. 

President Timothy Dwight journeyed through 
Hatfield in the forepart of the last century and wrote 
his impressions of the place in his "Travels." "The 

70 




THE WOODS MEMOHIAI> WINDOW 



inhabitants," he writes, "have for a long period been 
conspicious for uniformity of character. They have 
less intercourse with their neighbors, than those of 
most other places. An air of silence and retirement 
appears everywhere." He expresses the opinion that 
their seclusion and devotion to daily business con- 
tributed much to their prosperity. He adds, "The 
people of Hatfield are good farmers. Their fields are 
cultivated, and their cattle fattened in a superior 
manner." 

Without doubt the great educational institution 
for women at Northampton, Smith College, owes its 
origin indirectly to the Hatfield church, of which Sophia 
Smith, the founder of the college, was a member. Her 
mind and spirit were moulded by the church, which 
exerted a strong influence over her throughout her life. 

Rev. Irving A. Flint, was installed pastor of the 
church, February 23, 1911, president M. L. Burton, of 
Smith College, preaching the sermon. 



71 




FIRST MEF/ITN(; HOUSE OF SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 

HOLYOKE, MASS. 

Editico (ledioated July 27. 1853. ('oriiei' of Dwiglit and Hisli streets. 

Aicliiteot, Henry Austin. New Haveu, Conn. Use of tlie 

liuildiu^ discoiitiiuH'd the Inst Suiiduy of iss+ 



Meeting Houses in South Hadley, 
Massachusetts 

ASSOCIATIONS OF MARY LYON AND HER INSTITUTION 

IT seemed to the writer that no one to whom he 
could turn for aid in telling the story of the meeting 
houses in South Hadley and Mary Lyon's associa- 
tion with the second and third of these houses would be 
more competent to render him the assistance needed 
than the South Hadley pastor, Rev. Jesse Gilman 
Nichols, A. M. He accordingly invited Mr. Nichols 
to prepare the desired sketch, the result being the 
appreciative and valuable article below, printed ver- 
batim as written by Mr. Nichols. 

ALTHOUGH the town of Hadley made grant of 
pasture land south of Holyoke range as early as 1675, 
it was not until 1720 that settlers began to make 
their homes there. In the face of determined oppo- 
sition on the part of the older people, who tried to 
discourage them by urging that the southern slopes of 
the mountains were but the coverts of bears, wolves 
and panthers, and that the thin sandy soil of the plains 
would furnish bare subsistence, a small party made 
their way over the mountain pass through the wilder- 
ness. The seriousness of this venture is shown by the 
fact that before their departure the parents tearfully 
invoked the blessings of Heaven upon their children. 

In those days attendance upon public worship was 
compulsory, and the church authorities were relentless 
toward those who were able bodied; no one could 
indulge in unnecessary absence. No exception wjis 

73 



made for the new settlers on the south side of the 
mountain. On the Sabbath they followed the narrow 
Indian trail eight miles to the meeting house, and 
after the services were over retraced their steps. This 
weekly journey became so irksome even to the most 
hardy of the settlers that they petitioned the General 
Court at Boston in 1727 to be set off as a separate 
precinct with power to build a meeting house and 
settle a minister. The Court granted this petition on 
condition that the precinct contain forty families 
within two years, and that they settle a learned and 
orthodox minister within three years. The Court 
granted a second petition in 1728, provided they build 
a meeting house and settle a minister within three 
years. Upon a third petition in 1732 the Court 
extended the time limit two years. 

In 1733 the new precinct so far met the requirements 
of the grant as to erect a plain frame meeting house. 
In 1734 a committee, especially selected, seated the 
meeting house according to dignity and rank ; ratable 
estate, age, and ability being taken into consideration. 
There was no steeple. In some New England parishes 
of this period, where there were no bell towers or 
steeples, the authorities hung a bell on a frame erected 
for that purpose near the meeting house, or on some 
noble tree. In 1749 this precinct voted "to have a sign 
for meeting on ye Sabbath," and authorized the 
purchase of a conch shell (konk), and the payment to 
John Lane of such a sum as "the assessors should 
agree" to blow the shell. 

Grindall Rawson, a young Harvard graduate, was 
ordained first minister October 3, 1733. He was 
an able but very eccentric man, outspoken in matters 
theological, thereby giving offense to his people. Not 
more than four years elapsed before the meeting house 
became the center of stormy scenes. The situation 

74 




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became so strained that a mutual council, of which 
Rev. Jonathan Edwards of Northampton was scribe, 
met to decide whether or not "Mr. Rawson was 
qualified for the work of the ministry, as to his learning, 
his orthodoxy and his morals." Although the council 
upheld the minister in a general way and he had some 
loyal supporters, the dissatisfaction became so general 
that in 1741 a later council advised separation. As 
Mr. Rawson completely ignored the repeated votes of 
the parish and the advice of the council, and continued 
to preach, certain members of a committee of fifteen 
siezed him while engaged in the service, carried him 
from the pulpit, down the aisle, and forcibly ejected 
him. It is said that his voice could be heard distinctly 
above the turmoil, as he was borne past the awe- 
stricken worshipers. 

During the earlier part of the pastorate of Rev. John 
Woodbridge the meeting house was a place of quieter 
scenes. Mr. Woodbridge came from SufReld, Con- 
necticut, in 1742, and his pastorate marks an era of great 
prosperity. He was a gentle, scholarly minister, most 
faithful in all parochial duties, who won and kept the 
esteem of his people. South Hadley was formally set 
apart from the mother town in 1753, and the church 
grew so rapidly under the ministry of Mr. Woodbridge 
that the meeting house was not large enough to seat 
all of the people. The inhabitants voted in 1751 to- 
build a new house near the old one. 

When the question of location arose, the parish 
divided into two factions and engaged in a bitter contro- 
versy. Those who lived in the eastern section wanted 
the new building located at the end of the lane on Cold 
Hill; a majority favored the old site. So high did 
feeling run that after several committees, composed of 
members of both parties and of others called in from 
other parishes, had attempted to settle the matter over 

75 



•-iL ' 



(*^ 



the heads of a fickle few, who held the balance of power, 
and changed first to one side then to the other, the 
General Court formally set apart the eastern district 
(Granby) as a new parish. This was not accom- 
plished, however, before some of the more hot-headed 
of the eastern district stealthily pulled down a part of 
the frame of the new meeting house and hid the posts 
in the swamp. 

Upon the completion of the new meeting house 
the old one was moved a few rods to the north, where 
it now stands remodeled as a dwelling. The second 
meeting house faced the north, standing south and 
east of the first. The high pulpit, surmounted by a 
sounding board suspended by a great rod, was on the 
east side. The choir occupied the front seat of the 
west gallery, and the negroes back seats on a higher 
level in the same gallery. The body of the house had 
large square pews. The main door was in the middle 
of the west side. There was also an entrance on the 
north end for the men and one on the south end for the 
women. As in other meeting houses of the period, 
the seats were on hinges, so that the worshipers could 
lean against the sides of the pews and stand more 
comfortably during the long prayer. Sometimes the 
sacred stillness of prayer time was broken by the 
clatter of the falling seats. There was no means of 
keeping warm in winter except by footstoves. It is a 
matter of interest that, in later years, Dr. Condit had 
a little pulpit stove, which he replenished from time 
to time during the service. 

Mr. Woodbridge continued to preach until 1776, 
and lived until 1783. Mr. Joel Hayes, a Yale graduate 
of 1773, became his colleague, 1782, and preached for over 
forty years. It was during the ministry' of Mr. Hayes, 
in 1791, that Colonel Ruggles Woodbridge, son of the 
former pastor, a man of considerable means and force 

76 



\^ 



■xt 




THE WHITE CHURCH 
Mary Lyon's Funeral Held in This House 



of character, presented a bell to the parish. Tradition 
says that Colonel Woodbridge went to the foundry in 
Troy and cast fifty silver dollars into the molten metal 
to give the bell a silvery tone. He gave also a silver 
communion service, now one of the treasured pos- 
sessions of the church. 

Interesting customs sprang up in connection with 
the ringing of the bell, some of which have continued 
to a comparatively recent time. The bell was rung at 
noon, and a curfew at nine. Colonel Woodbridge was 
so strict in his manner of life, that he insisted that his 
workmen drop all work at the first stroke of the bell 
at noon ; and one of his workmen, so the story goes, 
more facetious then the others, climbing a ladder, 
bearing a bunch of shingles, dropped them to the 
ground at the first stroke of the bell. 

When there was a death in the parish the number 
of strokes on the bell indicated first whether the 
deceased was a man or a woman or a child, and then 
a second number of strokes the age of the deceased. 
The bell tolled also at funerals. It hung in a beautiful 
and lofty bell-tower erected from the ground, forming 
a porch about ten feet square on the north end of the 
meeting house. Entrances were made on the three 
sides of the porch. 

There were no important changes in the meeting 
house during the ministry of the Rev. Artemas Boies, 
who served the church from 1824 to 1834. It was 
during the ministry of his successor. Rev. Joseph 
Condit, ordained in 1835, that Mary Lyon sent her 
committee from Old Ipswich, in Essex, to select a site 
for her Seminary. There was keen competition among 
the towns in the Connecticut valley for the honor of 
having the Seminary located within their borders. All 
made liberal offers of financial support. It is said that 
the committee were attracted not only by the natural 

77 



beauties of South Hadley, but by the commodious 
meeting house. The parish manifested their good 
faith in her enterprise by raising $8,000 for Miss Lyon, 
a large sum for that day. Furthermore, to accommodate 
the members of the Seminary they removed the square 
pews, placed the pulpit in the north end at the foot of 
the bell tower, building the great sounding board into 
the second story of the tower. Winding stairs on 
either side led to the pulpit, which rested on posts six 
feet high. There were two aisles with a row of pews 
between and one row on either side next to the walls. 
As the Seminary grew additional seats were placed in 
the broad aisles; the galleries were changed to the 
east and west sides and south end, the last being the 
choir gallery. 

When Miss Lyon came to South Hadley, before 
the erection of the Seminary building, she spent much 
time in the home of Rev. Mr. Condit, who lived in the 
second house south of the meeting house. He became 
her trusted personal friend and spiritual adviser. He 
was one of the incorporators named in the charter of 
the Seminary, secretary for years of the board of 
trustees, and the one to deliver the principal address 
at the dedication of the Seminary building. The 
manuscript of this address still exists. It was most 
fortunate that the Seminary, which was destined to 
become such a strong spiritual force in the world, had 
at its beginning such a pastor as Dr. Condit, who by 
his marked spirituality and scholarly attainments 
greatly aided Miss Lyon in making effective what has 
come to be known the world over as "the Mount 
Holyoke spirit." 

The members of the South Hadley church hospi- 
tably opened their homes to the teachers and students 
before the Seminary building was entirely ready for 
occupancy, and gave their support in every way to Miss 

78 



Lyon. The young men of the village helped Deacon 
Safford, of Boston, one of the trustees, to set the house 
in order, putting down carpets and unpacking furniture. 
One enthusiastic girl wrote: "The South Hadley people 
were very kind to us. Mr. Hayes showed us to our 
seats in church as courteously as if we were personal 
friends whom he delighted to welcome to the house of 
God. Winter mornings, instead of being shut in by 
the deep snow, we found the nicest of paths cut for us 
by somebody in the night." 

Thus was begun a close friendly relation between 
the church and the Seminary, which has lasted to this 
day, those associated with the present Mount Holyoke 
College, both at home and in distant places, being 
among the honored members of the church. 

Special interest attaches to the church services of 
that day. It was no ordinary congregation that 
gathered on the Sabbath. In the number were the 
pioneers in the great movement for the higher edu- 
cation of women. Some of the leading divines of that 
day visited the Seminary each year and preached from 
that pulpit. The town's people were expected to be 
in their pews when the bell ceased tolling; then the 
pupils of the Seminary entered by the south door 
and occupied the seats in the east gallery. Some 
families invited their friends among the students to 
sit in their pews. 

There was always a large choir led by the precentor 
and accompanied by players on the bass viol, 'cello, 
violin and flute. In later years the bugle, clarinet, 
trombone and bass horn were added. The older people 
regarded this larger band as a desecrating influence, 
and denounced it openly at town meeting. Miss Lyon 
enforced the lesson of the morning by questioning the 
pupils at dinner and by making her own comments on 
the sermon. 



79 



In this second meeting house the first graduation 
exercise was held, although Miss Lyon personally 
preferred the Seminary hall for that event. She refers 
to the matter in a letter to Miss Grant : 

"But the agitation of the question about going to the meeting 
house on Thursday afternoon seemed almost to add more, when I 
had just all I could do. It came up once or twice, and was settled 
in the negative, as I felt a great reluctance to it. After Dr. Hawes 
came on Wednesday evening, the subject was again discussed. I 
found that the trustees, Dr. H., and the other gentlemen were all 
becoming decided that it was best to go to the meeting house ; I 
thought it the most modest to acquiesce. The certificates were given 
at the close of the services, but no other exercise differed from a 
common public meeting. It did not appear unsuitable, as I thought 
it would, and I was very glad I consented. The meeting house was 
full, and I think some of our donors would have been dissatisfied if 
we had met in the Seminary hall. Our certificates were signed by 
Miss Caldwell and myself, and simply countersigned by the secretary 
of the board, Mr. Condit. Of course the giving of the certificates 
devolved on Mr. Condit. He did it in his neat, elegant manner. 
Dr. Hawes' address was good common sense. Mr. Boies, of Boston, 
made the first prayer, and Dr. Carr the last." 

Miss Caldwell, the associate principal, adds this 
account : 

"The trustees, the orator of the day, the teachers, the senior class, 
and the school, walked to the church in procession, the school clad in 
white, with heads uncovered, and shaded by parasols. The side pews 
and galleries were already crowded when Miss Lyon led her beautiful 
troop in quiet dignity to the seats reserved for them. It was an hour 
in her life never to be forgotten. The battle had been fought, 
the victory was hers. In all that year she had never found an hour 
to spend in astonishment at her success, but now, when circumstances 
forced the view upon her, wonder, gratitude, and praise filled her 
heart. Her great soul was surcharged with joy; smiles and tears 
strove for the mastery on her radiant face. For an hour she resigned 
herself to the emotions of the occasion and gave way to a joy with 
which no one could intermeddle." 

Surely this house of God, whose walls witnessed 
such a sublime scene, became on that day, in a new 

80 




From imimamrepjmtmgm 1832, ^ ^ 



sense, "holy ground." From that time on it became also 
the place of frequent revival of religion. 

Other speakers at later anniversary exercises in 
the second meeting house were Rufus Anderson, Mark 
Hopkins, Bela B. Edwards, Edward Hitchcock, Lyman 
Beecher and Edward N. Kirk. 

The history of Mount Holyoke Seminary is vitally 
connected with the great missionary interests of the 
world. Within the first fifty years one hundred and 
seventy eight students of Mt. Holyoke went into the 
foreign field alone. It is not too much to say that 
within the sacred walls of this ancient meeting house, 
and of its successor, many received the first impulse, 
or were quickened in the purpose already formed, to 
dedicate their lives to the service of the Kingdom at 
home or in foreign fields. Truly, there are many sacred 
and tender associations in the minds of hundreds of 
graduates of Mount Holyoke with the church in South 
Hadley. 

With the continued growth of the town and the 
Seminary the second meeting house became inade- 
quate. The third house, built in 1844, known as the 
"Old White Church," faced to the west and was located 
so near the second building that the bell was easily 
moved from one belfry to the other without being 
lowered to the ground. The older house was torn 
down and the proceeds from the sale of lumber applied 
to the cost of the new. Most of the money was raised 
by subscription, the Seminary contributing $2,000 and 
taking a lease of a number of pews for ninety years. 
Miss Lyon gave a new pulpit Bible, twice rescued from 
the flames that destroyed two meeting houses, and 
now preserved among the treasures of the church. 
Dr. Condit preached his last sermon in the old meeting 
house August 11, 1844, from the text, 2 Peter, 3:11, 
"Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved 

81 



what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy 
conversation and godliness ?", and the first sermon in 
the new house, November 26, 1844, from the text, Ex. 
33 : 15, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not 
up hence." 

The closeness of the bond between Miss Lyon 
and her pastor, the extent to which she looked to him 
for counsel and sympathy, the great esteem in which 
she held him, are revealed by her own words in a letter 
to a friend : 

"Our dear Mr. Condit is very near his home. The king of 
terrors is approaching with gentle step as if loth to take his prey. 
Here I am alone in this great building ; no one near to interrupt my 
grief. I love this solitude for tears and prayers in his behalf. The 
years of our acquaintance pass in rapid review. As I dwell on him 
as a friend, a Christian, a counselor, a pastor, sadness spreads over 
my soul. And yet it is not all sorrow. Heaven seems to be opening 
her gates to receive another servant of Christ." 

How little did Miss Lyon realize that the gates of 
heaven would open again soon to receive "another 
servant of Christ"! She died March 5, 1849. To the 
White Church they carried her, after Dr. Laurie, the 
new pastor had offered prayer and the young ladies 
had looked for the last time upon the face of their be- 
loved teacher and friend ; the three relatives present, 
the trustees, teachers, pupils and other friends walk- 
ing in solemn procession. The Journal says : 

"We were forcibly reminded of anniversary occasions, and the 
thought that we were following that dear form for the last time was 
almost overwhelming. Prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Harris, of Conway, and by Rev. Mr. Swift, of Northampton. The 
sermon was by Rev. Dr. Humphrey, from the texts, 'The path of the 
just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the 
perfect day,' and 'The memory of the just is blessed.' The hymns 
sung were those beginning, 'God moves in a mysterious way,' 'Servant 
of God, well done,' and 'Why do we mourn departing friends?' From 
the church the procession moved to the grave, which is on a gentle 

82 




Copyriijht IQ07 In- A. S. Kinnt-v. By [erniission. 
MARY LYON AT 48. THE ]X\GUERRE()TVPK 



eminence in the Seminary grounds, a little to the east of the building. 
Gathering round it, the school sang, 'Sister, thou wast mild and lovely,' 
varying the hymn to suit the occasion, and were addressed in a few 
appropriate words by Dr. Laurie." 

The Monument, enclosed by an iron fence, covered 
with English ivy from slips sent by hundreds of loving 
pupils, has become the sacred shrine of thousands 
who cherish the name of Mary Lyon, and bears her 
immortal words : "There is nothing in the universe 
that I fear but that I shall not know all my duty, or 
shall fail to do it." 

It is singularly fitting that the most recent likeness 
of Miss Lyon should come to light by way of the 
foreign field. Four years before her death, she sat 
for a deguerreotype, in Boston, as a parting gift to a 
young missionary just starting for Ceylon. A daughter 
of this missionary recently brought it back to this 
country, a precious treasure sacredly preserved in her 
family all these years. 

The old White Church continued to be the place 
of worship of the village people and of the Seminary 
students, welcoming from time to time to its pulpit 
many eminent preachers, witnessing the anniversary 
exercises each year, and sending forth with a 
gracious blessing the Seminary classes of young 
women. 

Rev. Eliphalet Y. Swift, pastor from 1852 to 1858 
was followed by Dr. Hiram Mead, whose ministry was 
signally blessed by a great revival and by numerous 
accessions to the church. His wife, Elizabeth Storrs 
Mead, honored and beloved in church and Seminary, 
became the first president of Mount Holyoke College. 

Dr. John M. Greene, who had been Sophia 
Smith's pastor in Hatfield, and to whom, according 
to good authority, must be credited, in part, the 

83 



inspiration to found Smith College, followed Dr. Mead 
and in turn was followed by Rev. J. H. Bliss, whose 
sister, Anna Bliss, went from this parish to Huguenot 
Seminary, South Africa, to become in recent years the 
president of Huguenot College. 

On Sunday morning, January 18, 1875, the building 
was burned to the ground. "Within an hour," writes 
an eye witness, "the spire had fallen backward into 
the body of the church, which was already burnt bare — 
its 'pleasant things laid waste.* The beautiful new 
organ had been destroyed; the familiar seats, the pulpit, 
the communion table, hallowed by the sacred memories 
of so many years, were all gone." 

At the afternoon service, in the Seminary hall. Dr. 
Herrick, the pastor, chose the text, "For my thoughts 
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, 
saith the Lord." For thirteen months public worship 
was held in the hall. As the Seminary had owned one 
third of the meeting house, they turned over to the 
parish committee their share of the insurance to be 
applied to the construction of the new building. It 
was built of brick, Gothic style, with beautiful spire, 
and pointed arches in window and door spaces, and 
costing with its furnishings and organ about $28,000. 
It was dedicated February 23, 1876. Dr. William 
DeLoss Love commenced to supply the church in 
September, 1878, and was installed May 7, 1879, the 
parish under his leadership having cleared up the 
debt of $10,000 on the new building. 

The people were not permitted to enjoy this beauti- 
ful house of worship many years. On March 4, 
1894, at the close of the Sunday school, this building 
became a prey to the flames. Again the Seminary 
hospitably opened its doors for the church services. 
On the Sunday after the fire. Dr. Newton I. Jones the 
pastor, following the example of Dr. Herrick, preached 

84 



a sympathetic and stirring sermon from the text, 
Nehemiah 2: 20, "The God of heaven, he will prosper us; 
therefore we his servants will arise and build," greatly 
encouraging his disheartened people, and rallying them 
for rebuilding. The college this time contributed gener- 
ously, and gave up their share of ownership. The 
present stately and commodious edifice, the fifth was 
dedicated January 16, 1895. One pastorate of seven 
years, that of Rev. Arthur B. Patten, intervened be- 
tween that of Dr. Jones and the present pastorate, 
which began January 21, 1906. 

In order to meet the needs of the increased 
number of students and the requirements of a modern 
college, in September, 1905, four years after president 
Mary E. Woolley assumed the duties of her office, 
regular religious services were established in Mary 
Lyon Chapel, the preachers representing different de- 
nominations and coming from all parts of the country. 

Jesse Gilman Nichols. 



85 





^ w I- ^si 


^ 




i 

4 





Congregational Church Granby, 
Massachusetts 

IMMEDIATELY after the incorporation of the town 
of Granby in 1768, the heirs of Samuel Moody 
deeded to the town as a memorial to Mr. Moody 
an acre of land for a meeting house site, and a house 
of worship was erected upon it. The first minister of 
the church was the Rev. Simon Bachus, a nephew of 
Jonathan Edwards. 

In 1817 efforts were made to build a new meeting 
house. The question of location became a serious one 
and after disinterested parties had failed to solve the 
difficulty, an Ecclesiastical Council divided the church 
into the East and West Parishes. The house of wor- 
ship now used was erected in 1821-22 by the East Parish. 

In 1836 an arrangement was effected between the 
two parishes by which a call was given to Rev. 
Eli Moody of the West Parish to become pastor of 
the East Parish and an invitation extended to the 
people of his charge to unite with the East Parish, 
a union of the two parishes being thus virtually 
effected. 

The raising of the present meeting house was a 
notable event in the community. Two days were 
required for the work, the second day being devoted 
to raising the frame of the steeple. The men who had 
proved most effective in the work of the first day were 
entrusted with this work. When all was completed, 
the raisers stood on the topmost point and sang some 
familiar hymns, closing with the Doxology. 

The Granby church has been blessed with several 
pastors of great ability and worth. At times it has 

87 



held in its membersliip persons of unusual musical 
talent, who have voluntarily given much of their time 
to the church, thus making the services of the sanctu- 
ary a delight and blessing to all the members. From 
this church many consecrated workers have gone forth 
to labor in the home and foreign missionary fields. 

Standing as it does on a considerable elevation, 
this noble house of worship, with its well proportioned 
tower of three stories and Gothic roof and its portico 
supported by four Ionic columns, presents a most 
pleasing appearance. Visitors journeying through the 
country and coming unexpectedly upon this fine exam- 
ple of Colonial meeting house exclaim with surprise 
and delight. 



88 




CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, WILLIAMSBURG, MASS. 
Example of a R.emodsled House. 



Congregational Church Williamsburg, 
Massachusetts 

THE present edifice of the Congregational 
church in Williamsburg was erected in 1836. 
In 1859 it was raised up and a vestry was 
built under it. In 1897, during the pastorate of Rev. 
Henry S. Snyder, the edifice was remodeled by Messrs. 
E. C. and G. C. Gardner, architects, of Springfield, 
Massachusetts. 

At the request of the author, Mr. G. C. Gardner 
prepared the following description of the church : 

"It was in the first decade of the 19th century that 
the influence of the new French school of architecture, 
generally denominated the 'Neo-Greek,' was felt in 
England. Roughly speaking, the characteristics of the 
style were a decided return to the simple and severe 
lines of Greek architecture, as distinguished from the 
more florid and complicated Renaissance. It was a 
natural reaction against the growing debasement of 
the earlier French and English Renaissance, which 
was particularly striking in England. 

The 'latest styles' in architecture spread more 
slowly then than now, and it was not until about the 
end of the first quarter of the century that this type of 
work became popular in New England public architect- 
ure. Here in the Connecticut valley the period was 
a little later. The Congregational Church in Williams- 
burg, built in 1836, of which an illustration before its 
alteration is shown, was a very good example of this 
Greek revival, as it has been well named. 

The general characteristics of the style were well 
carried out with the comparatively meagre means 



which the committee had at hand. The original 
church with its very simple straight lines and broad 
unbroken surfaces was a dignified structure. The spire, 
or tower, always the most difficult feature of this style 
to handle, was rather unsatisfactory. 

The program presented to the architects of the 
alterations of the church was to provide Sunday 
school accommodations at the front of the church and 
make these accommodations two stories in height. 
The requirements of the addition called for a division 
of the addition into several rooms, which should be 
amply lighted. This meant an increase in the wall 
openings for windows, and, moreover, that these 
openings should be comparatively small, a requirement 
which virtually destroyed the characteristic charm of 
the Greek revival type of architecture. Then, too, the 
placing of the addition on the front of the church called 
for an increase and added prominence to a belfry, 
already rather small. The architects, therefore, decided 
to go back twenty years in history, and, by making 
slight changes in front and in the tower, convert the 
church into the Colonial type, so well known through- 
out the valley." 

Rev. John Pierpont, the present minister of the 
church, writes, "Our church is said to be one of the 
three finest examples of a remodeled Colonial church." 



90 



Congregational Church Enfield 
Massachusetts 

SITUATED on both banks of Swift river and 
shut in by the near-by hills, Great Quabbin, 
Ram Mountain, and Little Quabbin, the village 
of Enfield is one of the many attractive places in the 
paradise of the Connecticut valley and contiguous 
country. The late Francis H. Underwood, L. L. D., a 
native of Enfield and noted in Boston literary circles, 
describing in his interesting book "Quabbin" a view 
from the top of a hill overlooking the village of Enfield 
says : "The traveler who has seen something of the Old 
World finds that the tranquil beauty of the scene 
lingers in memory." The following interesting de- 
scription of the old church is taken from "Quabbin :" 

"The meeting-house of the village formerly stood sidewise to 
the road in a green space, flanked by rows of horse-sheds, some of 
them decrepit, and all unpainted. In its first estate it was of a dingy 
sulphur color, and without a steeple ; but its oaken frame and trussed 
roof were made to endure. Later, a steeple was set astride the roof ; 
the building was painted white, furnished with green (outside) blinds, 
and turned with its end to the street. The vane, of sheet metal, 
gilded, was cut in form of a man, the head cleaving the wind, and the 
legs extended for rudder. As it turned with a sharp cry on the rod 
which pierced its body, it needed but little aid from the imagination 
of a boy to become the image of some sinner transfixed in air, and 
held aloft to swing in lingering pain. 

In later days the boys found, in the cob-webbed and dusty space 
below the belfry, a long-forgotten cask of ball catridges, which had 
been kept, according to law, to be ready for an emergency that never 
happened. The paper covers were rotten, and the powder de- 
composed; and it was great fun to drop the leaden ounce-balls from 
the belfry railing, and then find them flattened and hot upon the 
stone steps below. 

91 



The pulpit within was high, approached by flights of stairs, 
and above it was hung a sounding-board, in shape like an extinguisher. 
It Wcis often a matter of wonder as to what would happen to the 
minister if the chain should break ; but the boys were assured by 
the thought that The Lord is mindful of his own.' 

The pews were square, each family being enclosed as in a pen, 
all facing inwards. The uncushioned wooden seats were hinged, and 
were raised ^as people stood up during prayer, to fall with a multi- 
tudinous clatter when the prayer ended. There was a gallery on 
three sides, the part facing the pulpit being occupied by the choir. 

A century earlier it was the custom in New England to 'seat 
the meeting,' that is, to assign seats to the town's people according 
to their rank, as magistrates, elders, deacons, college-bred men, land- 
owners, mechanics, and laborers. In Quabbin each head of a family 
owned the pew he occupied, paying an annual tax thereon to the 
parish. The best places in the meeting-house belonged to those who ' 
had the money to pay for them." 

Enfield was settled in 1736 and became a town in 
1816. The first meeting house was built in 1786-7 at 
the time of the organization of the "parish," and the 
first minister, Rev. Joshua Crosby, who had been a 
chaplain under Washington, was settled in 1789. The 
site for the meeting house was given by the grandfather 
of General Joseph Hooker of Civil war fame. A belfry 
was built in 1814 and a bell, the gift of Josiah Keith, 
afterwards placed therein. Mr. Crosby continued as 
pastor until his death in 1835, nearly half a century. 
He was one of the first trustees of Amherst College and 
for a time acting president of that institution. The 
spire of the church, which is very graceful, was designed 
by Sylvester Lathrop, a resident of Enfield, when he 
was only twenty one years of age. In 1835 slips were 
substituted for pews and other improvements made in 
the building. An organ was placed in the church 
in 1855. In 1873 extensive improvements were made 
upon the edifice and an organ costing $2,500 took 
the place of the old one. Mr. Edward Smith was 
a large contributor and prime mover in repairing 

92 




CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ENFIELD. 1787 



the church. A costly town clock was placed in the 
tower of the church some time prior to 1873. It was in 
1873 that the house was given its present beautiful 
appearance. At that time modern windows were 
put in and the interior tastefully frescoed. W. F. Pratt 
and Son, architects, of Northampton, superintended 
the work, being assisted by a New York architect. In 
1903 the church was repainted and refrescoed through 
the generosity of the late Lyman D. Potter. The late 
Edward Payson Smith served the church as organist 
for more than forty years without pecuniary compen- 
sation. His beautiful improvisations were much en- 
joyed by the congregation. The Enfield church is one 
of those that have wisely done away with the cumber- 
some system of parish and church organizations, the 
church having been incorporated February 15, 1906, and 
the parish dissolved in April of the same year. An 
interesting entry in the old parish records read as 
follows: "Voted April 1, 1816 that Ebenezer Winslow 
sweep the meeting house for one dollar and fifty cents 
per year to sweep it six times a year and after every 
town meeting." 

The fine photograph of the church from which 
the accompanying halftone was made is owned by 
Miss Marion A. Smith of Enfield. The Rev. Alexander 
Sloan is the present pastor of the church. 



93 




THE OLD WHITE CHURCH, WEST S 1 'i; I XC I I i:m ), 
1800 



The Old White Church West Springfield, 
Massachusetts 

THE old white meeting house on "Mount Ortho- 
dox" in West Springfield is one of the most 
familiar land marks of the Connecticut valley 
in Massachusetts. Past this structure go countless auto- 
mobiles and their occupants, touring up and down the 
valley. The church stands on a considerable elevation 
and its tall white steeple can be seen from far distant 
points. In May, 1695, the people living on the west 
side of the river petitioned the General Court "that 
they might be permitted to invite and settle a minister." 
Their petition was granted and a church was formed 
in 1698 ; in 1702 the first meeting house was erected. 
The architect was John Allys, of Hatfield, Massa- 
chusetts. The following is quoted from a letter 
written to the author by Rev. George W. Love, pastor 
of the Congregational church in West Springfield: 

'Turning to the description of this first meeting 
house, as the cut shows, it was evidently built after 
the untried plan of some local architect, for it was 
unique in every particular. It is described as forty 
two feet square and ninety two feet in height to the top 
of the spire, the vane of which, by the way, is largely 
conjectural. The timbers, which were of very large 
dimensions, were obtained in the nearby virgin forest, 
and, as was customary, were dressed by hand. The sills, 
it is said, projected above the floor and the people on 
entering and leaving were obliged to step over them, 
stumbling often, and in the early years of its occupancy 
they also furnished seats for the children : later it is 
evident an innovation was made by building seats upon 

95 



them, an arrangement which was not altogether free 
from objection, as October 24, 1745, it was 'voted that if 
there be not a Reformation Respecting the Disorders 
in the Pews built on the great Beam in the time of 
Publick Worship, the Committee shall have power, if 
they see cause, to pull them down.' These pews were 
said to have been fifteen in number, and the woodwork, 
as of the pulpit and railing, was of oak and yellow pine. 
The body of the house was filled with slips, par- 
titioned through the middle, forming two divisions, 
one occupied by the men, the other by the women. 
The gallery was on three sides of the building and 
the treble singers sat in the gallery on the right of the 
pulpit and the bass singers on the left. The pulpit was 
much elevated. The glass in the windows was 
diamond shaped and set in lead sash. 

The people gathered for worship in this quaint 
structure for a full century, although the subject of a 
new meeting house was agitated as early as 1769, 
when a committee was appointed to agree upon a 
location ; indeed the location seemed to be a bone of 
contention, as votes upon this matter were three times 
passed and afterwards rescinded. This difficulty was 
not settled until the year 1799, at which time the 
records show Mr. John Ashley, a prosperous resident 
of Ashleyville, contributed to the parish the sum of 
thirteen hundred pounds, on condition that the parish 
erect a spacious meeting house on a spot designated 
by him. The last gathering for worship in the old 
meeting house was on June 20. The building remained 
standing for eighteen years and was used for town 
and parochial meetings, when by vote of the town, in 
1820, it was demolished. 

That the offer of Mr. John Ashley was speedily 
availed of is shown by the fact that, while the gift was 
made in 1799, the corner stone of the second edifice, 

96 



the present 'White Church,' so called, bears the date 
June 14, 1800." 

Associated with the first and second meeting 
houses was Rev. Joseph Lathrop, D. D., a representa- 
tive preacher of his times, who began his ministry in 
West Springfield in 1756, and died on the last day of 
December, 1820, in the sixty fifth year of his ministry. 
He, like many of the leading men of the region in his 
time, was a graduate of Yale College. The following 
estimate of Dr. Lathrop is taken from "Holmes' 
Annals," published in 1829 : 

"Dr. Lathrop, to an intellect of the first order, united the 
kindly affections. He was exemplary in the observance of the duties 
of piety and devotion, and of the social and relative duties. As a 
Christian minister he was very conspicuous. To his comprehensive 
intellect and exalted piety was added the acquired knowlege 
necessary to constitute a great theologian. In his pastoral inter- 
course he was peculiarly attentive to the state and circumstances of 
his flock, and an eminent example of prudence. In doubtful and 
perplexing cases of ecclesiastical concern, he was destinguished as a 
wise, judicious, and upright counselor ; and great confidence was 
reposed in his judgment." 

Truly, there were giants in those days. It was to 
be expected that a region which in the first two 
hundred years of its history had such men for minis- 
ters of its churches and leaders of affairs as Thomas 
Hooker and Nathan Strong of Hartford, William 
Williams and Joseph Lyman of Hatfield, John Russell 
of Hadley, Solomon Stoddard and Jonathan Edwards 
of Northampton, Noah Porter of Farmington, Samuel 
Osgood of Springfield, Eliphalet Williams of East 
Hartford, Joseph Lathrop of West Springfield, and 
Joseph Condit of South Hadley, would exert an im- 
portant influence upon both national and world life. 
What part of our own land has not felt the influence 
of the narrow strip of territory bordering on the "Great 
River ? " Indeed, is there any inhabited part of the 

97 



globe that has not been in some degree enriched by the 
life of this region ? 

In his letter, Mr. Love, referring to the second 
edifice, states: "In comparing the lines of the second 
meeting house on 'Orthodox Hill' with the earlier one, 
a vast improvement is at once noted in the architectur- 
al features. What the architect's name was is not 
any where mentioned, leaving us to suppose the 
builder was his own architect, which is more remarka- 
ble in view of the youth of the builder, Capt. Timothy 
Billings; indeed his youth seemed likely to defeat his 
obtaining the contract, for when he appeared before 
the committee, members of the committee 'doubted if 
so young a man could construct so great a building,' 
one of them remarking, 'Why, he has no whiskers on 
his face,' to which the youthful Billings replied that 
'whiskers were not essential to the construction of the 
building, but brains were.' He had however a staunch 
supporter on the committee in the person of Justin 
Ely, Jr., for whom he had but recently completed a 
palatial residence in the most approved style and work- 
manship. At any rate, he secured the contract, as the 
records state, for $1,400 and ten gallons of St. Croix rum 

The edifice was two years in building and was 
dedicated June 20, 1802. Until the year 1870, very few 
alterations had been made, except that of changing the 
pews. In this year the question of repairing and 
remodeling the old building, or of building a new 
structure, arose and the church voted to build a new 
place of worship. The parish later voting not to con- 
cur resulted in a division of the church and the erection 
of the Park Street edifice; following this the old 
white church was extensively remodeled. The old 
galleries were removed and a floor laid, making two 
stories, with the audience room above and the social 
rooms below. At this time also the upper windows 

98 




First Meeting-House in West Springfield. 



were cut down, giving a more modern exterior. In 
1902 a clock was donated for the tower by Mrs. E. J- 
Nichols, heir of John Ashley, the original donor of 
the building. 

In 1909, the constituency of the old First Church 
gradually growing less and the Park Street church also 
feeling the effect of a changing population, a union of 
the two was effected. As a result of this action the 
services were transferred to the larger and more modern 
building on the common, at which time, April 1, 1909, 
regular services were discontinued in the old meeting 
house. Since that time it has been used as the head- 
quarters of the First Parish Historical Society, and 
here are kept the valuable historical paintings be- 
longing to the society. Services are also held during 
old home week and on anniversary dates. It is also 
the headquarters of the Boy Scout movement. 



99 




I'HE ol.l) cnrKCH (»N TilK \ lLLA(iK (4HKKN. l.oNci.MKAlX »^^ , 

MASS I7(M 



First Church of Christ in Longmeadow, 
Massachusetts 

THE church in Longmeadow is one of the 
oldest daughters of the First Church in 
Springfield, having been set off from that 
church in 1716. The story of the building of the first 
meeting house in Longmeadow is well told in the 
early records of the town. 

"April 26, 1714. Voated, to proceed in building of a meeting- 
hous, and to accomplifh it so far as to Raise fhingle and Clabbord, 
the fame by the firft day of January next infuing. Voated, that the 
meeting-hous be built Thirty Eight foots fquare." 

"February 10, 1715. Voated, to chufe and appoint a Committee 
to carry on the work of the meeting-hous to the finifhing and 
compleating of the fame. Except the Galries by the Month of April, 
which will be in the year 1716." 

There is evidence in the town records that the 
house was used for worship in 1716. The many votes 
passed in town meeting relative to work on the 
meeting house show that the structure was not com- 
pleted for some time after it was used for worship and 
that it became necessary to make repairs on the 
building before it was finished in all its parts. It is 
also made clear by the records that soon after the 
building was completed the question of erecting a 
new house of worship was agitated. 

"January 6, 1769. Voated that the Comtee Chosen for Building 
the New Meeting Houfe be Impowerd to Difpofe of the Old Meeting- 
Houfe for the ufe of the Precinct in fuch time and manner as they 
fhall think beft." 

Square pews were built in the first meeting house, 
a few at a time, at various intervals from 1748 to 1755. 
There was objection to square pews on the ground 

101 



that they were aristocratic. March 12, 1716, it was 
voted that the women should be seated on the west 
side of the meeting house. The records show that in 
Longmeadow, as elsewhere, the "dignifying," or seat- 
ing, of the house of worship was attended with much 
dissatisfaction, giving rise to heart burnings and 
jealousies. The minister and his family, the heaviest 
tax payers, and persons of high standing in the com- 
munity were given the preference. 

For many years the people were summoned to 
worship by the beating of a drum. The purchase of a 
bell for the meeting house was under consideration for 
some time. The records show that a bell was procured 
as early as December, 1744. In 1808 the sum of $125 
was granted for the purchase of a new bell. May 1, 
1809, the sum of $50 was added to the first grant. 
This bell, cast by Paul Revere and Son, was rung so 
violently to declare the joy of the town's people upon 
the declaration of peace in 1815 that it was cracked, 
and in August of that year a sum of money was 
granted for recasting it. 

It was at the time of the erection of the first 
meeting house that the Rev. Stephen Williams, who, 
at ten years of age, had been taken captive by the 
Indians at the sack of Deerfield and had received a 
part of his education in Indian wigwams and among 
the Jesuits at Quebec, began his ministry of sixty six 
years in Longmeadow. 

The building of the second meeting house was 
first discussed in town meeting in 1764, and an affirm- 
ative vote was passed that year. This was about fifty 
years after the erection of the first house of worship. 
The following is taken from an address delivered by 
Rev. Henry Lincoln Bailey on the 140th anniversary 
of the raising of the second meeting house : 

102 



"The discussion preliminary to the building of this meeting 
house was lengthy. The matter was well threshed out by a series 
of not less than nineteen town meetings, extending over a period of 
two and a half years, before there was a really visible result of all 
their argument. Early in November, 1764, the precinct voted to 
build a new meeting house for the public worship of God. Twenty 
five days later it was voted that the new house be of wood. But by 
February the mind of the people had changed. They not only voted 
down the proposition for a new building, but they also refused to repair 
the old one. Next month they saw the need of repairs, and so voted. 
There the matter rested ten months until in January, 1766, they 
ordered a brick house, and in several meetings through the winter 
voted recommendations concerning its size, equipment, etc., only to 
nullify the whole series April 10, and next week vote repairs again. 
A meeting in June enlarged the committee on repairs, but the larger 
the committee the more hopeless was unanimity ; and in September 
the parish took up the matter once again and by a vote never repealed 
ordered a timber meeting house, which was raised in 1767 and is 
standing yet, the oldest Congregational meeting house but one in 
Western Massachusetts." 

The date fixed upon for the raising of this house 
was June 17, 1767, and a committee was chosen to 
provide both "victuals and drink" for the occasion. 

At eleven o'clock in the forenoon of the day set 
for the raising, pastor Williams gathered his flock in 
the old meeting house and "prayed with them." 
Meetings for prayer were held morning and night 
each week day while the erection of the new house 
was in progress. The work was finished on Tuesday 
of the second week by the raising of the steeple. The 
night of this day the minister and people went to- 
gether to the old meeting house, where a service of 
prayer and praise was held. 

This second house was erected a little to the north 
of the first and stood without important changes for 
more than fifty years. In 1828 it was remodeled, the 
pulpit placed in the east end, the galleries rebuilt on 
the three remaining sides of the church, modern slips 

103 



substituted for the square pews, and the porches on 
the outside removed. 

As thus remodeled the second meeting house 
remained for about half a century longer, a conspicuous 
landmark of the town. It occupied a commanding 
position in the center of the long common. The tower, 
which faced to the west, was built from the ground up 
and was crowned by a two storied tapering spire, at 
the summit of which was perched a copper weather- 
cock. On the south and north sides of the house were 
two rows of windows. According to the vote of 
October 30, 1766, the house was fifty six feet long, 
forty two feet wide, twenty five feet in the clear, and 
the steeple fourteen feet square and fifty four feet 
high. 

In 1874 the meeting house was moved to a new 
site in front of the old burial ground and "wholly 
clothed upon with new beauty under the advice of a 
competent architect." 

Three of the men who preached in this second 
meeting house prior to the present century are remem- 
bered both for their distinguished abilities and their 
long pastorates. Rev. Stephen Williams ministered 
to the church from 1716 to 1782, Rev. Richard Salter 
Storrs from 1785 to 1819, and Rev. John Wheeler 
Harding from 1850 to 1891, their combined pastorates 
covering a period of about one hundred and fifty 
years. 

Rev. Henry Lincoln Bailey, the present pastor, 
writes of the portions of the old meeting house re- 
maining in the structure of to-day: "The frame of the 
old building is still here, though the interior and exte- 
rior are greatly altered in appearance. The house is 
unique in that it has, despite its modern adaptation, 
been the scene of every pastor's preaching in the two 
centuries of church life in Longmeadow." 

104 



A famous romance is connected with the Long- 
meadow church. No more remarkable story is to be 
found in all New England history than that of the 
Rev. Eleazer Williams, believed by many to be Louis 
XVII of France. According to the story, the Dau- 
phin of France did not die in the Temple, but was se- 
cretly brought to America, and later left in charge of 
an Iroquois chief, a half-breed, named Thomas Wil- 
liams, whose grandmother was the Eunice Williams 
of the Deerfield raid, sister of the Rev. Stephen Wil- 
liams of Longmeadow. In 1800 Thomas Williams 
brought to Longmeadow his two boys, Eleazer and 
John, to be educated under the care of Deacon Na- 
thaniel Ely, who had married the grandniece of Eunice 
Williams. Eleazer was converted in the old meeting 
house, under the preaching of Mr. Storrs, and later 
educated for missionary work among the Indians. In 
July, 1822, he engaged in missionary labors among the 
Indians at Green Bay, Wisconsin, where, in 1841, he 
received a mysterious visit from Prince de Joinville, 
eldest son of King Louis Phillippe. Eleazer Williams 
died in 1858. Any one who wishes to acquaint him- 
self with the details of the strange story of the lost 
Bourbon will do well to read a paper by the Rev. 
John Hanson, published in the February number of 
Putnam's magazine, 1853. The story is also well told 
by Mary C. Crawford in her interesting book, "The 
Romance of Old New Englcmd Churches." 



105 




FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. CHICOPEE 



Some Churches in Chicopee, 
Massachusetts 

CHICOPEE STREET 

RUNNING parallel with the Connecticut river, 
a short distance from the east bank, and ex- 
tending from the Chicopee river to a point 
opposite the city of Holyoke, is Chicopee Street, the 
location of the first meeting house built in territory 
now included in the city of Chicopee. The first settle- 
ment was made here as early as 1675. The records 
show that Japhet and Henry Chapin "were living in 
homes of their own" at that time. 

Clara Skeele Palmer, in her admirable work, 
"Annals of Chicopee Street," referring to Japhet and 
Henry Chapin, says: "Sons and daughters were born 
to these brothers and in a few years there were eighty 
eight grandchildren." 

In the ancient records of the First Church of 
Springfield is this interesting note by the "compiler" 
for the year 1751 : " ' Inhabitants of Chicabee' desired 
to be set off as a parish; of 50 petitioners (males) 
exactly one half were Chapins." The petitioners 
actually numbered forty nine, twenty four of whom 
were Chapins. 

Thus began the life of the community. It was 
Hannah Chapin, daughter of Japhet, whose wedding 
outfit, when she was married to John Sheldon of 
Deerfield, contained "a dress suitable to wear into 
captivity." A few days after the attack upon Deerfield, 
at which time the young bride was taken captive, an 
Indian woman was seen wearing the dress. 

107 



The first religious meetings were held in private 
houses, or the school house, and three quarters of a 
century elapsed after the Chapin brothers built their 
homes in the region before a meeting house was 
erected, the people during all this time belonging to 
"the old Parish in Springfield." 

The first parish meeting was held July 30, 1751. 
Deacon Chapin, in his diary, describing the building 
of the first meeting house, states that on the evening 
of January 2, 1751, "all with united voices declared for 
cutting timber for a Meeting House." The record for 
June 5th is, "This day thro ye Indulgence of Heaven, 
we have our Meeting House raised with great joy and 
satisfaction." The building was not finished until 
1765. It was without a steeple or bell and stood in 
the middle of the street. The following description 
of the edifice is taken from an article printed some 
years ago in the Springfield Union: "This meeting 
house, which stood until 1826, was a square building, 
with two entrances, one for men and the other for 
women. The outer siding was of riven oak or chest- 
nut, beaded on the lower edge, each piece about four 
feet long and three inches wide and fastened with 
hand made wrought iron nails. The windows were of 
seven by nine inches glass, in heavy sash and capped 
with ornamented boxes, which made nice domiciles 
for martins and bats. The pews were square, with 
high backs, with small rounds and railings at top, 
seats on their sides, fronting the center and door on 
side of the aisle. There were galleries on three sides, 
with singers fronting the pulpit. Over the pulpit was 
a sounding board of graceful conical form, and the 
pulpit, being reached by a flight of perhaps a dozen 
steps, was so high that the elastic sounding board was 
essential to keep the theological arguments from fail- 
ing of their mission by being dissolved in air over the 

108 





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SEC(JXD OuXGliEGATIONAL CHURCH, CHICOPEE FALLS 







■■■'-- ■■ — _^^^,,,,^,^^t,gt,udtmmaMmM 



heads of the audience. The people came from miles 
around to attend the services." 

The comer stone of the second meeting house, 
the fine Colonial structure now standing on Chicopee 
Street, was laid May 12, 1825, and the building was 
dedicated January 4, 1826. The house when finished 
"cost four thousand, four hundred dollars, some odd 
cents." The beautiful mahogany pulpit was a gift 
from friends of the pastor and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. 
Alexander Phoenix, and cost $500. 

The writer of this sketch confesses that his 
admiration for the Chicopee Street house of worship, 
all things being taken into consideration, is very great. 
Flat meadow land, farm houses, and distant mountain 
ranges constitute the natural environment. A short 
distance to the west of the edifice the 

"Winding and willow-fringed Connecticut" 

flows quietly on its course southward. A glance at 
the church and its surroundings shows how refined 
was the taste of the builders of this meeting house, 
how keen their perception, and how excellent their 
judgment. Mrs. Clara Skeele Palmer, in a conversa- 
tion with the writer, expressed the opinion that Mr. 
Phoenix, minister of the church at the time the present 
house was erected, a man of wide information and 
much knowledge of the world, must have had an 
important influence in the making of the plans 
of the church. The building is neither too large 
nor too small for its environment. The extreme 
plainness of the main portion is in perfect harmony 
with the flat meadow country close at hand, while the 
massive columns of the portico, with their elaborately 
carved capitals, are suggestive of the ruggedness and 
grandeur of the mountain ranges to the north and 
west. All of the parts of the structure are relatively 



109 



well proportioned. The quaint green blinds with their 
fan shaped tops, the well proportioned tower of two 
stories with its simple classic adornments, and the 
four large Ionic columns of the portico, excite the 
admiration of all who are capable of appreciating a 
fine example of Colonial architecture. Just within the 
entrance to the auditorium are two splendid Ionic 
columns, rising from the floor to the ceiling and 
crowned with beautiful capitals. The mahogany pul- 
pit at the opposite end of the room was originally 
much higher than at present and a stairway ascended 
to it on either side. Four mahogany columns, sur- 
mounted by Ionic capitals, harmonious with the great 
columns at the opposite end of the room, once sup- 
ported the pulpit, but were removed and allowed to 
go to decay when the attempt was made in 1860 to 
modernize the interior of the house. It was at this 
time that the pulpit was lowered ; the backs of the 
pews were also lowered and the doors at the ends of 
the pews taken off. The pulpit was lowered again in 
1885. 

The fish which serves as a weathervane is inter- 
esting. It is left to the reader to decide whether it 
represents a Connecticut river shad or the symbol of 
faith employed by the early Christians. 

CHICOPEE FALLS 

The members of the Methodist society in Chicopee 
Falls may well take pride in their house of worship. 
They have shown good taste in retaining the pure 
white color of the exterior. The frieze of the cornice 
is ornamented by a delicate line of dental work ex- 
tending around the two sides and front of the building. 
In front are ten pilasters, which give the house a 
stately appearance. The spire, consisting of an octag- 
onal base and a slender tapering roof rising above nar- 

110 




METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, CHICOPEE FALLS 




GEORGE S. TAYLOR. 
Typical New Er.g-laiid Deacon 



row windows set in pilastered casings, is most graceful. 
The church is one of the best examples of the old 
order of houses of worship in the region. A large 
gilded comet serves as a weather vane. One of the 
leading members of the church is of the opinion that 
the comet was chosen for this purpose because it is 
symbolical of the demonstrative nature of genuine 
Methodism. Perhaps it was intended to remind the 
people of the destruction of the world in the fiery 
catastrophe foretold in 2 Peter 3: 10-12, and call them 
to repentance. 

In the days when Methodism was not so popular 
as it is now and the adherents of that denomination in 
Chicopee Falls could not easily find a convenient place 
in which to hold their services, prayer meetings were 
held under an old buttonball tree near where the 
Griggs' lumber yard is now established. The first 
building erected by the Methodists in Chicopee Falls 
was built in 1826 on the east side of Broadway, where 
their present house of worship stands. This house 
was sold in 1841, and in the following year the edifice 
now standing at the junction of Broadway and East 
street was erected at a cost of $4,500. 



CONGREGATIONALISM in Chicopee Falls had 
its beginning in 1822, when the Rev. Samuel Osgood 
held occasional preaching services in Mr. Benjamin 
Belcher's house. A little later the place of meeting 
was changed to the Ames paper mill on the north side 
of the Chicopee river. In 1828 arrangements were 
made by General A. Nettleton and others by which a 
school house was occupied by the Congregationalists, 
Baptists, Methodists and Universalists— each denom- 
ination having control of the house one Sunday of 
each month in the year. 

Ill 



July 1, 1830, a Congregational church of thirty 
three members was formed under the name of the 
Fifth Congregational Church in Springfield. April 17, 
1831, the name of the church was changed to the First 
Congregational Church in Chicopee Factory Village, 
Springfield ; and finally, May 10, 1848, when the town 
of Chicopee was incorporated, the title Second Con- 
gregational Church of Chicopee was adopted by the 
society. 

The first house of worship used by the Congrega- 
tional society was erected in 1833. The building was 
one story in height, seventy two feet long, forty six 
feet wide, and had a tower sixty feet high. The wa- 
ter-color sketch of this house made by Margaret Bel- 
cher in 1837 gives a good idea of the building and its 
surroundings. Miss Belcher, now in her ninety third 
year, says that she painted the picture from a chamber 
window in her father's house. She was at the time 
a student in Wilbraham Academy and was detained 
at home for a few weeks, caring for her invalid mother. 

Extensive improvements were made upon the 
church in 1859, amounting to more than $4,000, includ- 
ing the cost of an organ. From this time the double 
bass viol and flute were heard no more in the services 
of praise. Accompanying this sketch is a most inter- 
esting account of the dedication of the improved house 
of worship, in the hand writing of the late Timothy 
W. Carter, transcribed by him from the Chicopee 
Journal of October 22, 1859. 

Mr. Timothy W. Carter came to Chicopee Falls 
when sixteen years of age, and from that time until 
his death in 1890, at the age of eighty years, he occu- 
pied a leading place in the business, religious, and 
political life of the place. The letter from John Brown 
reproduced here, was written to Mr. Carter, who was 
at the time agent of the Massachusetts Arms Com- 

112 



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75fc-^ TI^'"— ^C^^^' Y^-^^^J e^ ^^ 

O^C^t/y., Jf^ e</ayt Ccc^j (U^T^ fc*^^. i^^*^- ^ 









U^ //%.>-. /7nyK'T,i' OTx,A e^Z-Tn- n^-^U^-^. Im- '^ -A«^ &^7i- o^A^t^-o ty/ /T:l)t-^A-f- . 



'^<V7''C- 



pany and who was deeply interested in the cause of 
human freedom. A perusal of the letter enables one 
to form an impression of the character of the man 
who called on Mr. Timothy W. Carter in Chicopee 
Falls one day and invoked assistance in his efforts to 
save Kansas to the cause of Freedom. Miss Mary H. 
Carter well remembers John Brown's call at her fa- 
ther's house and describes him as a tall serious look- 
ing man with a gray beard. What an impassioned 
cry to God for Freedom is the letter written from Os- 
sawatomie in 1856 ! In his invasion of Virginia and 
the Harper's Ferry affair Brown was mistaken in 
judgment, but his heart was undoubtedly right and 
his motive commendable, ' The God of nations over- 
ruled for good the rashness of the man, and the cause 
for which John Brown gave his life triumphed glori- 
ously in the conflict of arms which speedily followed 
the martyrdom of this zealous and resolute opponent 
of slavery. 

Mr. Charles A. Stein, advertising agent of the J. 
Stevens Arms and Tool Company of Chicopee Falls, 
Mass., states in a pamphlet written sometime ago 
that a close friendship existed between Mr. J. Stevens 
and John Brown. Mr. Stevens was a pronounced 
abolitionist and, according to Mr. Stein, the pistols 
used by Brown in his raid at Harper's Ferry were 
made by Stevens and sold by him personally to Brown 
at Chicopee Falls only a short time before the historic 
raid. Mr. L H. Page, president of the J. Stevens 
Arms and Tool Company, confirms Mr. Stein's state- 
ment. The cut of the John Brown letter accompany- 
ing this sketch was made from the original letter, now 
in the possession of Mr. N. P. Ames Carter, of 
Chicopee Falls, having been handed down to him from 
his father, Timothy W. Carter. 

113 



The late George S. Taylor, who was for more 
than three score years a member of the Second Con- 
gregational church and a deacon of the church for 
over half a century, kept a diary from his twenty 
first birthday, March 2, 1843, until his death, January 
3. 1910. 

Deacon Taylor wrote in his diary June 12, 1859, 

"Services were held in the church for the last time, Rev. Mr. 
Alvord delivering a sermon appropriate to the occasion. All prepa- 
rations are completed and the church ready to be removed." 

The entry for June 14 of the same year reads : 

"The church was moved today and looks much better." June 
26, he wrote, "The church looks as if it was on stilts." 

The entry for June 28 is as follows : 

"The comer stone of the church was relaid this morning at 
7.30 o'clock by Rev. Mr. Alvord. Mr. Alvord made some remarks. 
Also Rev. Mr. Clark, pastor of the First Church, and Mr. T. W. 
Carter. Mr. E. P. Nettleton deposited the box. The choir were 
present and sang and we had quite a little gathering." 

According to Deacon Taylor's diary, work on the 
spire of the church was begun July 26, 1859. Septem- 
ber 15, he wrote : 

"The staging around the spire was taken down as far as the old 
tower and the spire presents a fine appearance." 

Deacon Taylor's records of improvements in the 
church refer to the changes made upon the building 
in 1859, when it was moved back from the street ten 
feet, raised up one story, and a spire built. His records 
show that in 1872 extensive alterations of the interior 
of the church were made, by which the organ and 
choir were removed to the east end of the audience 
room, the pews and pulpit renewed, and the vestry 
remodeled and refurnished. October 11, 1872, re- 
dedicatory services were held, the pastor Rev. Dr. 
Tucker preaching the sermon. 

114 



In 1875 extensive improvements were made in 
the vestry of the church, the expense of which was 
generously borne by Mr. T. W. Carter. 

The beautiful spire of the church, having been 
damaged by lightning in a terrific thunder storm, 
July 22, 1903, was taken down and the present tower 
with its classic adornments constructed in its place. The 
church standing as it does on the brow of the hill, a 
short distance from Main street, is a reminder of for- 
mer days, when most of the substantial citizens of 
Chicopee Falls had their homes in the neighborhood 
and no additions to the population had been made by 
immigrants from Ireland and Canada and Poland. 
The accompanying map of Chicopee Falls, made by 
Mr. T. W. Carter, bears no date, but was evidently 
made about 1839. The Congregational church, which 
is sketched in the upper right hand corner of the map, 
was built in 1833, whereas the cottage located on the 
south east end of the Carter homestead, which was 
built as early as 1843, does not appear in the map. 
Miss Mary H. Carter, daughter of Mrs. T. W. Carter, 
and Mr. E. Dwight King, a life long resident of 
Chicopee Falls, are both of the opinion that the map 
was made about 1839. 



115 



First Congregational Church 
Easthampton, Massachusetts 

THE members of the First Congregational 
Church in Easthampton recently celebrated 
the one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary 
of the organization of their church. The Springfield 
Republican, the day following the celebration, con- 
tained the following brief outline of the church's 
history : 

"The church was organized November 17, 1785, at the house of 
Captain Joseph Clapp. There were seventy two original members, 
forty six dismissed from the Northampton church and twenty six 
from the Southampton church. Rev. Payson Williston was called April 
6, 1789. Previous to that Rev. Aaron Walworth preached. Rev. 
Mr. Williston was ordained August 13, 1789, age twenty six. Stephen 
Wright and Benjamin Lyman were the first deacons. Rev. Mr. 
Williston served until March 11, 1833. He died in 1856. Rev. 
William Bement was the next pastor, serving from 1833 to 1850, when 
Rev. Rollins S. Stone was installed. Rev. Mr. Stone served until 
1852, when he became pastor of Payson church. He was succeeded 
by Rev. A. M. Colton, who remained 27 years. 

Then came Rev. S. G. Wood, now of Blandford, who served 
thirteen years. He was followed by Rev. J. D. Stoops. The present 
pastor. Rev. G. H. Burrill, has been in charge about five years. The 
first building stood on the present site of Main street park, and the 
present church was first located on Main street where North hall of 
the Seminary now stands. The building was erected in 1836 and 
1837. It was enlarged in 1844 and more spacious galleries built, 
owing to increase in members, some of it due to the establishment of 
the Seminary. It was removed in 1865 from the original site to its 
present site. The Payson and Methodist churches are offsprings of 
the old First Church. 

Rev. Payson Williston, the first pastor, was the father of Samuel 
Williston, who founded the Seminary, started Easthampton's indus- 
tries, etc. Samuel Williston and Rev. Solomon Lyman were largely 
instrumental in the establishment of the first Sunday school in 1818. 



117 




THE BEAUTIFUL SI'IRE, ASHFIELD 



The Old Church in Ashfield, Massachusetts 

THE first meeting house built in Ashfield stood 
near where the village cemetery now is. 
About 1800 this structure had become unfit 
for a place of worship and the question of building a 
new meeting house was discussed in town meeting. 
The people being unable to decide upon a location for 
the new house, it was finally agreed that a committee 
of three disinterested persons, one each from Conway, 
Plainfield and Hawley, should be called in to place the 
stake for the meeting house. Such a committee was 
chosen and promptly performed their duty, setting 
the stake "on the hill near Reverend Mr. Porter's 
house," and admonishing the people that party feeling 
should be allowed to subside and the Christian society 
be united in the bonds of friendship and live in peace. 
The person chosen to build the new house of worship 
was Colonel John Ames of Buckland, Mass. He did 
not live to finish the structure. But other hands 
completed the work which he had begun and the new 
meeting house was ready for occupancy in 1814. It was 
regarded as one of the handsomest churches in the 
state, the tower being especially admired. Mrs. Charles 
Eliot Norton is said to have remarked that she was 
influenced to make her home in Ashfield by reason of 
the beautiful spire of the old meeting house. In recent 
years several well known architects have visited Ash- 
field and obtained pictures and plans of the church. 
In 1820 the town conveyed the church to the 
Congregational parish, and in the same year stoves 
were first used in the building. In 1857 the edifice 
was moved to its present location in the village. Ten 

119 



years later, a union of the two churches in the village 
being effected, after having been used as a house of 
worship for fifty three years, the edifice was conveyed 
to the town of Ashfield and converted into a town 
hall. In this building the well known Sanderson 
Academy dinners have been held for many years and 
on these occasions some of the most noted speakers 
in the country have been present. Not far from the 
site of the old church are the summer homes of the 
late George William Curtis and Professor Charles Eliot 
Norton. Mr. Curtis presented the fine vane on the 
steeple. 



120 




CONGRJJGATIOXAL CHURCH. ENFIELD, COXN. 



Congregational Church Enfield, 
Connecticut 

THE first meeting house in Enfield, a small 
temporary structure, was built in 1684, and 
was probably located on the site of the old 
cemetery. The second house was erected in 1706 and 
stood in the highway west of the present post office. 
In 1775 a third meeting house, the building now used 
as a town hall, was erected on ground a little west 
and south of the present house of worship. 

In a sermon preached on "Old Home Sunday," 
July 17, 1910, Rev. David L. Yale, pastor of the Enfield 
church, said of the third meeting house and the action 
taken towards erecting a new edifice : "The meeting 
house was in need of repairs. For nearly seventy 
years it had grown old in service for the community. 
It was the pride of Enfield in Revolutionary days ; 
but, as age had increased, pride had decreased, until, 
in 1871, there were evident signs of discontent." 

December 25, 1877, Henry A. Abbe was author- 
ized to secure subscriptions for a new meeting house. 
But it was not until Colonel Augustus G. Hazzard 
interested himself in the matter that the many ob- 
stacles in the way of the movement for a new house 
were removed and a building committee, of which Mr. 
Hazzard was the leading member, actually appointed. 
The date of this action was January 29, 1848. The 
plans for the new edifice were drawn by F. M. Stone, 
a New Haven architect. The building was com- 
pleted early in 1849 and dedicated February 4th. 
In the Connecticut Courant for February 24, 1849, we 
read : "The church reflects great credit upon the arch- 

121 



itect and the builder. The plan was drawn by F. M. 
Stone, Esq., of New Haven. The edifice was built by 
Mr. Newton Moses, of the same place, and painted in 
fresco in the inside by those distinguished artists, 
Molini and AUegri, of the city of New York." 

The Church is regarded by many as one of the 
best examples of Colonial architecture in New Eng- 
land. 



122 



Congregational Church East Haddam, 
Connecticut 

THE Congregational church in East Haddam, 
Connecticut, is one of the best examples of 
early Colonial architecture. The interior is 
said to have been patterned after King's Chapel in 
Boston. The edifice was built in 1794 and has been 
preserved in all of its essential characteristics. It had 
originally the "sheep-pen" pews and high pulpit with 
sounding board. A noon-mark is cut on one of the 
front door steps. The building is sixty four feet long, 
forty four feet wide and has an extension in front 
four feet in depth and eighteen feet long. On the 
outside doors of the church are large hand forged 
latches. 

In 1902 Mr. George G. Williams, then president 
of the Chemical Bank of New York city and a native 
of East Haddam, gave the church a large and commo- 
dious chapel with all the modern improvements. 

The present church is the third house of worship 
used by the society. The first house was made of logs 
and was built in 1705. It was thirty two feet square. 
The second edifice was built after a more elaborate 
fashion in 1728. It was fifty five feet long and forty 
feet wide, and stood a short distance from the site of 
the first house. The site of the present house is a 
considerable distance from that of the first edifice and 
the change of location was the occasion of a violent 
church quarrel, resulting in the formation of an Epis- 
copal church. 

The photographs from which the accompanying 
halftones were made were taken by the daughter of 
the present pastor of the church, the Rev. Franklin 
Countryman. 

123 




FIKST t lil la II. KASr llAlMKolili, CDNN. l.vi." 



First Church of East Hartford, 
Connecticut 



s 



* ' C ^ TANDING sentinel at the main entrance to 
the town's highway, our church also stands 
boldly and largely and immovably for the 
town's righteousness and welfare." 

In these words the historian of the First Congre- 
gational church of East Hartford lovingly referred, in 
a recent historical address, to his church edifice, and 
to the place which it holds in the community. Mr. H. 
S. Pitkin, of East Hartford, in a recent letter to the 
author writes: "The imposing meeting house, now 
75 years old and in excellent condition, is a good ex- 
ample of its period, especially in its exterior, which 
remains practically as it was first designed. It stands 
at the junction of Connecticut Boulevard, that broad, 
mile-long stretch of road which joins on to the great 
stone arch bridge across the Connecticut river at 
Hartford, and the main street of East Hartford, the 
latter famous for its rows of ancient elms along either 
side and in its center. The Old White Church,' as it 
has been called for generations, dominates its locality 
and lends its name and something of its dignity to 
'Church Corner,' which one passes in a trolly ride 
between Hartford and Springfield." 

For half a century after the company under Rev. 
Thomas Hooker in the summer of 1636 established 
themselves at Hartford, the people dwelling on the 
east side of the "Great River" worshiped in meeting 
houses on the west side of the river. In May, 1694, the 
east side people petitioned the General Court for the 
"liberty of a minister" on their side of the river. 

125 



Their petition was granted in 1701, and the church 
was organized sometime between that date and May 
13, 1702. In 1783, when the town was separated from 
Hartford, the name of the church was changed to the 
First Congregational Church in East Hartford. 

The first meeting house of the society was a long 
time in the process of construction and was a bare 
and uninviting structure. Its site is now known as 
"Meeting House Green" and is marked by a large 
boulder, bearing an appropriate inscription. The 
building was erected in the first decade of the 
eighteenth century. 

The second house of worship was built in 1740 
on substantially the same site as that of the first 
structure. It was a plain bare edifice, but much larger 
than its predecessor. The building was used as a 
hospital by the French army in 1781-2. It had a high 
and somewhat ornate pulpit on the west side with a 
huge and ornamental sounding board over it "like a 
great extinguisher." It had no steeple and there was 
no bell to call the people together. 

It was torn down in 1835, after having been used 
as the home of the society for almost a century, and 
the available material used in the construction of the 
third house of worship, the stately structure of the 
present time. 

This third house was patterned after the meeting 
house in New London and was built by Mr. Chauncey 
Shepard of Sufiield. The raising took place in June, 
1835. "There was ample provision of crackers and 
cheese, lemonade and water, but no rum." The edi- 
fice was dedicated January 20, 1836. The town con- 
tributed $1,000 toward the erection of the building 
and was allowed to use the basement room "for the 
purpose of transacting public business on the days 
of election and town meetings only." A more suitable 

126 



place for public meetings was finally provided through 
a bequest made by the late Jonathan T. Wells. In 
1876, while the late Dr. T. T. Munger was serving the 
church as stated supply, the house was badly damaged 
by fire and underwent extensive alterations on the 
inside. At this time the old pews were removed, the 
pulpit platform lowered, and the ceiling altered and 
frescoed. The time honored broad aisle also disap- 
peared, a change which was greatly lamented by 
many. 

March 8, 1894, the church was incorporated, and 
in March, 1895, the ecclesiastical society, which had 
existed for almost two hundred years, having finished 
its mission, was dissolved. 

That the church in its early history had a good 
degree of Congregational independence is shown by 
the fact that March 29, 1748, a formal protest was 
made against sundry articles of the platform adopted 
by the synod convened at Saybrook in 1708. 

The most notable pastorate in the history of the 
church is that of Rev. Eliphalet Williams, D. D., in- 
stalled in 1748 and remaining with the church until 
his death in 1803, serving fifty three years as pastor 
and two years as pastor emeritus. He was the son 
of Rev. Solomon Williams, D. D., of Lebanon, and 
grandson of Rev. William Williams, of Hatfield, Mass. 
His brother William Williams, was one of the signers 
of the Declaration of Independence. Dr. Williams 
was in several respects a great man. At the inaugu- 
ration of Dr. Stiles as president of Yale College, Dr. 
Williams delivered an oration in Latin. He preached 
the sermon at the funeral of Governor William 
Pitkin, which was held in the East Hartford meeting 
house. Parson Williams, who was also known as 
"Priest" Williams, was a strict disciplinarian and a 
good deal of a tyrant in the administration of the 

127 



affairs of the church. He was devoted to his pipe 
and loved his flip. The Parson WiHiams' house stood 
until recently on Main street, near the site of the first 
meeting house. It had a famous old doorway, a 
gambrel roof, and was "a study in architecture" both 
within and without. 

Another notable pastor of the East Hartford 
church was Dr. Samuel Spring, who was settled in 
1833 and continued in active service as pastor twenty 
nine years. John B. Smith in an address delivered at 
the two hundredth anniversary of the church des- 
cribed Dr. Spring as "the gentleman, the peace lover, 
the kind neighbor, the thoughtful friend, prompt, 
self-forgetful, self-depreciating, honored and loved by 
all who knew him." The church has had in its 
membership many men of great influence in town and 
state affairs. In 1763 a board of elders was insti- 
tuted, corresponding to the present prudential com- 
mittee, which consisted of Honorable William Pitkin, 
governor of the colony, Jonathan Hills, John Pitkin, 
William Cowles, William Pitkin, Jr., Samuel Smith, 
Isaac Porter and Richard Gilman. 

Through the efforts and generosity of Colonel 
Solomon Olmsted, the famous temperance reformer, 
John B. Gough, made almost annual visitations to 
East Hartford and delivered his wonderful lectures to 
enthusiastic audiences. 

The first superintendent of the Sunday school 
was Major Samuel Pitkin, a foremost citizen of East 
Hartford. 

Rev. William C. Prentiss is the present minister 
of the church. 

For many of the above facts the author is indebted 
to the Bi-Centennial History of the church prepared by 
Mr. H. D. Olmsted of East Hartford. 



128 




(•UN(4KE(iA'ri()NAL CHUHrH. FAU.M IM i'l ()\. COXX. 1771 



The Congregational Church in 
Farmington, Connecticut 

OCTOBER 13, 1652, seven men, afterwards 
called "the seven pillars of the church," 
entered into an engagement to form a 
church. The society has had three houses of worship. 
The first was a rude structure used as a fort as well as 
a house of worship and its site is unknown. The 
second house was completed in 1714 and resembled 
the meeting houses of that period. The date on the 
foundation stone of the third building, the present 
well known structure, is 1771. The architect and 
builder of this house was Captain Judah Woodruff. 
The design resembles in a general way that of the Old 
South Church of Boston. The spire of the church, 
which is one hundred and sixty feet in height, shows 
the influence of Sir Christopher Wren and is the 
crowning glory of the church. There are no bolts in 
the steeple, but simply good oak timber and pins. The 
tall Gothic roof of the tower was completed below 
and raised to its place. 

The famous Connecticut blacksmith and apostle 
of peace, Elihu Burritt, in an address describing his 
first sight of Farmington, says: "I clambered up 
Sunset Rock and, sitting down on the edge with my 
feet over the side, looked off upon the scene with a 
feeling like that of a man first coming in view of Rome 
and its St. Peter's. I had never before seen a church 
with a steeple, and measuring this above us with a 
child's eye it seemed to reach into the very heavens. 
This steeple crowned all the wonder I saw." 



129 



The interior arrangement of the church was in 
general the same as at present. The pulpit stood 
opposite the west door. Along the walls on every 
side of the gallery was a row of square pews. On the 
high pulpit and sounding board were ivy vines carved 
by Captain Woodruff. 

In 1836 extensive alterations were made in the 
interior of the house ; the square pews and the high 
pulpit and sounding board were removed at this time. 
In 1731 a bell was purchased, and a town clock was 
placed in the tower in 1738. In 1901 the interior of the 
church was completely renovated. The pulpit now in 
use was given by Miss Martha Day Porter and her 
sister in memory of their grandfather, Dr. Porter. 
The fine organ was given by Miss Anna Jennings of 
New York in memory of her beloved teacher. Miss 
Sarah Porter. In 1902 a beautiful parish house was 
erected in memory of Miss Porter by her pupils. 

Rev. Noah Porter, D. D., born in Farmington 
December 23, 1781, was ordained as minister of the 
Farmington church in 1806. He served the church 
as pastor until his death in 1866. He was the father 
of Rev. Noah Porter, D. D., LL. D., who was president 
of Yale College at the time the writer of this book 
was a student in that institution and from whose 
hands he received his college diploma in 1882. 

September, 1810, nine men appointed by the Gen- 
eral Association of Massachusetts as members of the 
American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Mis- 
sions met in Dr. Porter's study in Farmington and 
completed the organization of this first Foreign mis- 
sionary society in America. Governor Treadwell, a 
member of the Farmington church was the first presi- 
dent of the Board. 

The following is from "The Hartford Magazine' 
for July, 1906 : "Shakespeare speaks of 'the spire and 

130 



top of praise.' The beautiful spire of tiie Farmington 
Congregational church for more than a century has 
gracefully held its position at the top of praise among 
all church spires of its chaste style of beauty. It is 
generally conceded to be the daintiest and most ex- 
quisite lined church spire in rural America." 

For most of the facts given in this sketch the 
writer is indebted to an article written some time ago 
by Rev. Quincy Blakely, the present minister of the 
Farmington church. 



131 




C<>X(4KE(4A IIOXAI. CHURCH, WKTHERSP^IELD. CONN iTfil 



The Wethersfield Meeting House 

THE corner stone of the present house of 
worship was laid in 1761, the builders taking 
as a model the Old South church of Boston. 
In outward form the edifice is substantially the same 
as when built. A small porch was erected over the 
south door in 1830, which gave place in 1882-3 to the 
present handsome vestibule and porch. Originally the 
windows were filled with small panes of glass. Blinds 
were not used until 1827. In 1868 windows with large 
panes were substituted for those of small size and 
when the interior of the church was remodeled in 
1882-3 stained glass windows were put in. This is the 
third meeting house that has stood on or near the site 
of the present edifice. The first was begun in 1645 
and probably completed in 1647. It stood a short 
distance south of the site of the present house. It has 
been described as a small square building with a belfry, 
a north and a south door. It was made of logs. The 
interior was wainscoted and it was clapboarded with- 
out. In 1657 a bell was hung in the belfry and galleries 
were added in 1675. 

The second meeting house had carved upon its 
corner stone the date of 1685, the year probably in 
which the erection of the building was begun. This 
house stood near the old site. The old bell was hung 
in the belfry of the new house and used for about a 
year, when it was recast and enlarged. This second 
house was fifty feet square and had dormer windows. 
There were no galleries until 1701-2. The first pews 
were built in 1715 and others were added in 1735. 



133 



It was during the history of this structure that a 
branch of Yale College was established at Wethersfield 
and seats were assigned in the house of worship to 
students of that institution. Some of the material of 
this building was used in the erection of the present 
edifice. The old bell, which had been recast for the 
second building, was used in the new house for a 
quarter of a century. In 1786 a new bell of more than 
fifteen hundred pounds weight was cast. It was raised 
to its place in 1787 and the name of John Chester, 
who superintended without pecuniary compensation 
the building of the present house, was inscribed upon 
it. In 1875 this third bell was broken while being 
rung. In consequence it was taken down, recast and 
enlarged to a weight of more than two thousand 
pounds. It was raised to its place November 5, 1875. 
Some of the material in this bell has been used to call 
the people of Wethersfield to divine worship for more 
than two hundred and iifty years. 

The tower of the church, like that of the Farming- 
ton house, is made of oak timber and pins, no iron 
bolts being used in its construction. The spire is 
famed for its grace and beauty. 

It is believed that the first settlement in Connec- 
ticut was made at Pyquag, now Wethersfield, in 1634. 
The settlers came from Watertown, Massachusetts. The 
first ecclesiastical organization appears to have been 
effected in 1641. It was from this church that Rev. John 
Russell and a large company, on account of a religious 
controversy, removed to Hadley, Massachusetts, in 
1659. Mr. Russell was minister of the church from 
1650 to 1659. For further account of Mr. Russell the 
reader is referred to the sketch of the Hadley church, 
page 61. 

Rev. George L. Clark, author of "Notions of a 
Yankee Parson," a book brimful of common sense and 

134 



sparkling humor, is the pastor of the Wethersfield 
church. The writer thinks that his readers will be 
interested in a few quotations from Mr. Clark's book. 

The man of seventy cannot run as tast as the man of sixteen, but 
his opinion is worth more when he gets there. We owe a large debt 
to Dr. Osier for telling us that "the effective, moving, vitalizing work 
of the world is done between the ages of twenty five and forty," 
because he stimulated an inquiry which has led us to see that it is not 
so. — Chapter X. The Later Years. 

This is the receipt for a fine day almost four hundred times a 
year : Equal parts of courage, kindness and patience, preserved in a 
crystal vial of purity, taken every morning before breakfast whether 
the sun shines or the clouds frown. — Chapter III. The Weather. 

The country parson must know how to harness a horse, milk a 
cow, plant a garden, paint a room, tinker the clock, and make hens 
lay. — Chapter XII. Optimism, The Minister's Business. 

We are here to play the game to the finish, to find the treasure 
in every part of life, and to use it, man-fashion. — Chapter IX. The 
Use of the Remainders. 

If there is any time when the country peirson is most sorely 
tempted to indulge in worldly pride and to look down in pity upon 
his less fortunate though more famous city brothers, it is when he 
goes out into his garden. — Chapter II. The Parson in his Garden. 



135 




THE i^EAUTIFUL COLONIAL MEETING HOUSE, OLD LYME, C<)NN. 



Old Lyme, Connecticut 

THE new and beautiful house of worship at 
Old Lyme, Connecticut, is evidence of the 
respect of the present generation for the 
ideals and achievements of the fathers. What could 
be more appropriate than the preservation in the new 
house of worship of the main features of the ecclesi- 
astical architecture characteristic of former genera- 
tions ! How identical with the traditions of the past 
is the fashion of the present house of worship ! What 
could be more beautiful or imposing in its historical 
environment than this house ! According to tradition, 
a house of worship was built on Meeting House Hill 
as early as 1668. This is believed to have been a 
small log building and was used for about a score of 
years. The second meeting house was erected in 
1689, close to or upon the site of the first. The third 
house of worship was built about 1738 and stood upon 
Meeting House Hill, like its predecessors. The specifi- 
cations in the plan for the building of this house called 
for a structure sixty feet long, forty feet wide and twenty 
four feet between sill and plate. The General Court 
was petitioned to appoint a committee to determine 
the site, as the society could not agree upon one. 
There is a tradition that in 1780 the roof caught fire 
from the wad of a musket, which had been fired at 
marauding wood-peckers, and that a squadron of light 
horsemen stationed in the town helped to put out the 
fire. In 1815 the building was struck by lightning 
and burned. Its successor was the beautiful Colonial 
structure which became so widely known and admired. 
It was built in the years 1816-17, on a site about three 
quarters of a mile from where the former meeting 

137 



houses had stood. It was about the same size as its 
predecessor. For designs for the new building several 
of the best houses of worship in the state were studied. 
According to tradition the work for the most part was 
done by ship carpenters. How great was the skill of 
the workmen and how excellent the taste of the 
designers was plainly shown by much of the woodwork. 
During the closing years of the past century and the 
first years of the present century the church became 
widely known. Paintings were made of it by several 
artists of distinction and one painting of it was 
recently shown at the International Exhibition in 
Venice. This noble structure stood for upwards of a 
century, the just pride of the inhabitants of the town 
and much admired by visitors from abroad. It was 
completely destroyed by a fire of unknown origin, July 
3, 1907, the ninety second anniversary of the burning 
of its predecessor. In a letter to the writer of this 
book the pastor of the Old Lyme church, Rev. Edward 
M. Chapman, writes as follows of the present house of 
worship, an illustration of which appears in connection 
with this sketch : "The new building is practically a 
replica of the old ; an exact replica as to front, sides, 
spire, and so forth as far as we could reproduce the old 
from photographs. The interior is a reproduction of 
the old, with a simplification of certain decorative 
features introduced when the apse was built about 25 
years ago ; and it is very successful." 

The architect was Mr. Ernest Greene of New York. 
The edifice is substantially built of steel, cement- 
plaster, concrete and wood. The best quality of clap- 
boards was used to cover the cement, thus protecting 
the cement from the weather and naturally restoring 
the old appearance as well as the old lines of the 
church. The corner stone of the new house was laid 
November 8, 1908, and the church was dedicated June 

138 



18-19, 1910. It represents an expenditure of about 
$50,000. 

Two facts stand out in this brief historical sketch. 
First, there has been a house of worship on or near 
the site of the present building for about two and a 
half centuries. Secondly, in the building of the suc- 
cessive meeting houses steady advance was made in 
architectural effect, resulting in the noble structure 
described in this sketch and shown in the accompany- 
ing illustration. 



139 




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The Old Town Meeting House 
Rockingham, Vermont 



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1 * ACH year the people of Rockingham, accom- 
panied by a large number of visitors, make a 
pilgrimage to the famous old town meeting 
house, on which occasion a service is held in the edifice 
and a sermon preached by some prominent clergyman. 
During the services some of the most familiar Psalms 
are read responsively and the old hymns of the church 
are sung by the congregation. The following beautiful 
hymn by J. G. Whittier, entitled, "Nature's Worship," 
was sung at the service held August 1, 1909 : 

The harp at Nature's advent strung 

Has never cecised to play: 
The song the stars of morning sung 

Has never died away. 
And prayer is made, and praise is given 

By ail things near and far: 
The ocean looketh up to heaven 

And mirrors every star; 
The green earth sends her incense up 

From many a mountain shrine : 
From folded leaf and dewy cup 

She pours her sacred wine. 
The blue sky is the temple's arch ; 

Its transept, earth and air ; 
The music of its starry march, 

The chorus of a prayer. 
So Nature keeps the reverent frame 

With which her years began ; 
And all her signs and voices shame 

The prayerless heart of man. 

The following sketch is taken from the admirable 
"History of Rockingham," by Mr. L. S. Hayes, of 
Bellows Falls, Vermont : 

141 



"The only church building in Vermont dating back to Colonial 
days, which retains the original characteristics in its interior, as well 
as its exterior, is that located in the little hamlet of Rockingham. 
Leaving the broad valley of the Connecticut near the mouth of 
Williams river, where, in the winter of 1704, the first Christian sermon 
was preached in the almost unbroken wilderness of the territory 
which afterward became the state of Vermont, by the Rev. John 
Williams, then a captive in the hands of Indians who had taken him, 
with over a hundred others, in the Deerfield massacre, we proceed 
up the valley of the river which bears his name. One who looks for 
the picturesque and the quaint is soon delighted to catch glimpses of 
a severely dignified, simple, white structure, standing on a consider- 
able eminence overlooking the valley and seeming to dominate the 
landscape. As one comes nearer and rounds the foot of the hill 
itself he finds himself in the quiet little village of Rockingham, 
familiarly known as 'Old Town.' 

It was here that the first settlements in the town were made in 
1752, with the expectation that it would be the social and business 
center of the town, and here that the early settlers, in 1772, voted that 
"the Meeting house be Set on the hill west of David Pulsipher's 
house about thirty or forty Rods." It was a quaint and beautiful 
custom of those days which set the Lord's house always upon a hill, 
in the midst of the town, a silent and lofty guardian watching over 
the affairs of men in the valley below. The meeting house of the 
first church organized in Rockingham, a type in itself of the stern, 
unyielding dignity of those rugged characters, stands hard by the 
graves of those who once made the life of the community, overlook- 
ing the Williams river valley and the peaceful farms below. It is a 
landmark for many miles and attracts every year many visitors from a 
distance. 

The interior is of severest Puritan outline, the only deviation 
from the rectangle being an inclosed two-story 'porch' at each end, 
from which the stairs ciscend to the gallery. The windows are many, 
and contain each forty panes. The pulpit, which was originally 
reached by a winding stairway, has been lowered a few feet, but 
otherwise the interior is unchanged since the days when the good 
people from the farms in the neighborhood laboriously climbed the 
hill to sit without fires, with freezing feet, and benumbed hands 
through sermons two hours long, or convened on week days to trans- 
act the weighty business of the town. 

The pews are of the old square, high backed style, the outer or 
wall row, being raised slightly above those in the comer of the room. 
The spindles which once ornamented the backs of these seats have 

142 



been ruthlessly removed as curiosities, as have been the hinges which 
once creaked on Sabbath afternoons as the door of the pew swung 
back to admit the good man and his family, — the children in somber 
anticipation of long hours of imprisonment on good behavior, to be 
alleviated only by rare and meagre dolings of fennel and caraway 
seeds from the capacious depths of maternal pockets. 

This building, so interesting and quaint, is an object lesson in 
itself of the architecture and methods of building in old Colonial 
days, dating back, as it does, to the years when Vermont was a 
sovereign state without ties to other states or nations; when all 
citizens, irrespective of creed or without creed, where taxed by the 
government for the support of the gospel, as well as for other 
purposes for which taxes were imposed by the laws of the common- 
wealth. 

It was built by the town itself, the various votes in relation to 
it being passed in town meeting and the expense paid directly from 
the town treasury. In addition to its use for church purposes it was 
used for all town meetings until 1870, after which the town business 
was transacted in Bellows Falls. It was the only public building 
owned by the town until 1887, when the present brick structure 
known as the opera house was erected in Bellows Falls, just 
one hundred years later than this town church was built. The 
regular church organization, organized along the broad lines 
of Congregationalism previous to the building of the church 
was kept in being until 1839, and until this year sustained a 
local pastor most of the time. At sundry periods the building has 
been used by various religious denominations, but since 1839 it has 
not been regularly occupied by any. The town very appropriately 
authorizes the selectmen to keep the building in good repair, the out- 
side being neatly painted, and the roof well shingled, but the inside 
has had but little expended in keeping it in repair and curiosity 
seekers have somewhat marred its beauty. Substantially, it remains 
in the primitive condition of the 18th century, a silent, and yet 
eloquent, reminder of the days when church and state were one, and 
when there was a universal interest throughout the community in 
spiritual things." 

The master builder, who directed the erection of 
the old meeting house described in the sketch by Mr. 
Hayes, was General Fuller. He lived on a farm in the 
town of Rockingham. It is said that at the time of the 
raising of the frame of the edifice "Mr. Fuller quietly 

143 



took his place on the beam and went up with the front 
broad side." 

On the opposite side of the house from that shown 
in the accompanying picture of the exterior of the 
building are two interesting entrances with classic 
embellishments. During the early years of the town, 
notices of important public meetings were posted on 
the front door of the old church. Here also were 
published all matrimonial banns and intentions of 
marriage. The following unique notice was posted on 
the door of the meeting house March 15, 1804 : 

"Notice, — John Parks Finney and Lydia Archer, of Rocking- 
ham, came to my house, and having been published agreeably to 
law, — but he being a minor and not having his father's consent, I 
refused to marry them. They, however, declared that they took each 
other as husband and wife, meaning to live and do for each other 
accordingly. Samuel Whiting, Minister." 

This appears to have been a kind of free love 
marriage. 

Since Mr. Hayes wrote his sketch of the edifice, 
parts of the building, which had been removed or had 
decayed, have been restored. At this time the old 
pulpit was restored. August 12, 1907, the house was 
rededicated, a large crowd attending the exercises. 
Some one, writing of the old church since the work of 
restoration was completed, says, "It is now a beauty 
in its quaintness." 



144 



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